An Elite's Tale

Xepo stood at the edge of the troop bay, sniping. Fliz had just finished up with the ledge and was still swiveling around to meet a new threat when a ball of energy flew into frame. It blew up at his feet and briefly enveloped the firing platform in kelly green lava. A Banshee soared by, casting a long shadow as it passed, and Xepo rushed out onto the empty platform, aimed, and snapped off two shots.

He cursed and made a circling motion, saying, "He's going around to the other side."

Ludo turned back and saw Soze shooting behind the Phantom, slowly adjusting his aim upwards until the mount restricted his line of sight. The young Minor then ripped the plasma cannon free from its mount and leaned back, firing directly skyward. Satisfied, Soze stopped shooting, rolled his neck around, and strolled back to join the others in the troop bay. A wrecked Banshee crashed against where he had stood and plummeted down to the floor of the battlefield.

"This guy," Xepo commented over the TEAMCOM.

"Is that it?" Itan asked.

"No," Ludo answered, "Stay ale-"

Everything went bright. Ludo raised an arm to shield his eyes and four rapid explosions thumped the Phantom. Peeking through his fingers, all he could make out Itan and Soze's shadowy silhouettes in the brightness. Booming flashes enveloped them and shook the floor, and when the brightness of the flare abruptly dissipated, he saw one of the young Elites swimming backwards through the air, out of the Phantom. The other was diving forward into the troop bay.

Soze hadn't even fallen out of sight when a lone Brute Captain landed in a squat on the bay door. He stood straight just as a pair of Brute Majors landed behind him to the left and right, and moved up as packs of Minors used their anti-gravity Jump Packs to fall like endless rain from the cliff tops down to the ledges, Phantom, and Scarab below. The ventral bay doors of the Phantom started closing and a few of the falling Minors in the background managed to squeeze into the troop bay before it was sealed.

Rtas keyed Ludo. Ludo switched over to his frequency and the Shipmaster said, "Ludo, I need not remind you how vital the survival of these Councilors are for the future of Sanghelios."

With Tartarus's head start and the fate of the galaxy resting on a single human's willpower, Ludo wasn't entirely sure there'd be a future of anything soon. However, that wouldn't stop him from doing his job. Taking a quick moment to assess the situation, Ludo took a mental picture of the scene unfolding before him.

Itan was still on the ground, scooting and scrambling backwards, spikes and plasma embedding and melting into the floor mere inches in front of him. He had both pistols on overcharge and fired one at a Minor that was rushing towards him and screeching like a wild animal. The energy burst splashed against its face and dissolved it's facial features far beyond recognition, effectively stopping it in its tracks. Ludo knew the boiling hot plasma would burn like fire through the mongrel's shaggy fur and thick hide, then eat all the way through its tough flesh down to the bone. The Brute fell straight back and hit the ground with a satisfying thud.

The Brute Captain, red flag flapping valiantly behind him, pointed at the Elites and shrieked, "The pack will feast on your flesh!"

Xepo appeared at the Plague's right hand side, holding his cooling beam rifle one-handed.

"Not if I can help it," the green armored Elite said.

Ludo looked over at him, then back at the Brute Captain and responded to the Shipmaster via HIGHCOM, "Situation is under control."

"Like hell!" the Brute cried, insulted, and leveled his Type-52 Grenade Launcher at them.

Xepo brought his rifle up and aimed. Ludo tackled him down out of the way of the incoming grenade volley and four successive explosions went off behind them against the closed bay door. Utilizing the momentum, Ludo rolled off of Xepo, armed a borrowed plasma grenade, and hurled it at the Brutes as he swung back into a shooting stance.

The grenade sailed true, adhering to the Captain's chest and emitting a cheery chime of beeps upon activation. The Brute yelled, "Damn you!", and the bomb detonated. For a split second, the room was painted in fluorescent blue light, and the Brutes standing behind him were thrown backwards, all clumsily flailing and tripping over each other into a huge dog pile against the closed ventral door.

Ludo saw Itan get to his feet, finally, then turned and helped Xepo up. The first of the Brutes to recover was one of the Majors that stood and instantly strafed to the left, shooting spikes. Itan fired overcharge number two and blasted the Brute square in the shoulder, spinning it halfway around. It fell to a knee, down, but not out. Ludo brought his carbine to bear and brought the ape all the way down and out for good.

He neared the end of his last mag, so he pumped the remaining two rounds into the corpse for good measure. Some think overkill, Ludo thinks solid confirmation. The gun clicked on empty and he tossed it aside like the sheath to a sword, as though the real weapon was now unleashed. In theory it was, Ludo thought, flexing his hands open and closed, tensing his legs.

Then he remembered his spiker and grabbed that instead. Not because he couldn't handle these Brutes bare handed, but because the rugged weapon just felt more appropriate for the moment. He laid on the trigger and swept it back and forth, spraying nails into each Brute that had gotten back on its feet. In other words, all of them.

The second Brute Major was shouting, "Take them down!" and the remaining Minors all rushed the Elites, rather than engaging them from a distance. This last Major, unlike its predecessors, had enough sense to know that they would lose a mid range battle. What this Major didn't know was that the others had done themselves a favor by not letting the Plague get his hands on them. And the doors were sealed shut? Trapped in a room with Ludo 'Macdemee was the last place any knowledgeable soldier wanted to be, given the choice between that, and facing a Hunter pair or being eaten alive by the Kig-Yar.

He never released the trigger. With the drum, he didn't have to. He was burning through the second half of the generous magazine, shooting right past a Brute Minor coming straight at him in order to keep the second Major from advancing. Ludo felt a heavenly level of satisfaction when he saw a spurt of blood as a spike embedded itself deep in the Major's eye. Then the Minor's fist came into view.

With the speed of a frog snagging a fly, Ludo jerked to the left and the wild haymaker skidded inches past his head, grazing his purple armor. He then sidestepped to the outside and thrusted the spiker forward, impaling the subordinate Jiralhanae through the side of the head with a sickening thwok! He could feel the extra weight resting on the gun, so he pushed forward and released it and the Brute fell over with a spiker sticking out of his head.

Two blue lines flashed and dropped two of the three Brutes that were rushing Itan, who was backpedaling like mad and unknowingly towards a bulkhead. He alternately and rapidly fired both pistols as he did so, but the lead Brute absorbed every shot like a sponge and grabbed his wrists, pinned him up against the wall, and roared in his face. The blue-clad Elite strained to turn the pistols towards his opponent's head, but he could not match the Brute's strength. The death grip released when a third blue line punched through the Brute's skull and tossed it off its feet.

Ludo turned back to the Major, who stood there stumbling and off balance, swaying back and forth as if in a daze, and walked over to him. Ludo was a blur of purple brutality. He batted away a bloodhand that the Brute had tried to pull from behind its back at the last second, then snatched the spike from its eye, flipped it around and forced it up through his foe's chin before cracking him with a heavy hook to the fleshy eye wound.

The Major crashed to the floor, alive but probably wishing he wasn't. Ludo hovered over him and planted a foot on his chest, then turned and panned around the troop bay. All threats neutralized, two teammate casualties confirmed. He'd had better battle reports, but he'd also had worse. He could learn to live with it. Ludo always thought that that was always the best quality about his robotic mentality; his arrant lack of any emotion when it came to the loss of life. Except perhaps, the slight mirth of a task successfully executed when it was he who was the life taker.

The Plague stepped off the groaning Brute and keyed Shipmaster 'Vadumee.

"Commander, troop bay secure," he reported.

When Rtas's voice came through the communications feed, it was loud and curt with concentration. Ludo had almost forgotten his commander was still in the heat of the bigger battle.

"-uvo, keep those bastards off the Walker! It is our only means of entry into the control room, we cannot afford to lose it! Ludo, status?"

As he listened, Itan walked over and handed him his spiker. Ludo retrieved the weapon and patted the young Elite's shoulder before letting him go on.

"Troop bay is secure, Commander," Ludo repeated. He caught Xepo's attention and nodded in the direction of the downed Major, then made a subtle cutting motion across his throat. Xepo happily obliged.

"I never doubted it," Shipmaster 'Vadumee said. "Now you can help us with our mongrel problem. I'm opening the bay doors now. I need you to get down to the Walker and clear out those hijackers. Show them no mercy."

"I never do," the Plague replied coldly, signing off.

He was absently watching Xepo, who was hefting his beam rifle by the barrel. The green Elite raised the rifle high over his head.

Ludo ordered Itan to clear out all the Brute corpses, then walked over to one and detached its anti-gravity Jump Pack, which allowed the user to leap incredible distances and safely fall from Olympian heights.

More Brutes to kill. Ready up.

Moments later Ludo stood at the very edge of one of the open bay doors, taking in the moment. The jagged cliff face rushing by, the roaring, ripping wind, his favorite soundtrack, war zone noise, on full blast in the background. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, then exhaled and stepped off the platform.