An Elite's Tale

Immediately he activated the anti-gravity filters but still he sank like a stone. Whichever Brute he'd taken this from must have made a hard landing, so he set the decreased Pack's gravity levels to about thirty percent until he was floating at parachute pace. Ludo's flight path put him near an intersection course with a wild Banshee chase headed straight for the Scarab convoy.

Observing this, he noticed that the middle craft was the odd man out, both chasing and being shot at, and Ludo doubted that the odds were in the Brutes' favor, as terrible as they were at flying. He dropped the empty drum out of the bottom of his Spiker, which he still had in hand.

The Plague popped in a fresh magazine and took aim at the second flier, which by his calculations, required him to aim at the leading Banshee in order to successfully hit his target. He adjusted. Ludo unloaded half the magazine and riddled the middle Banshee with spikes, then held off as they zoomed under and on past him. Averting his aim, he looked down to the Scarab.

Two of the Elite Majors were topside, one armed with a Type-52 GL and the other a fuel rod cannon. They weren't even remotely worried about the hijackers on board, and for good reason. More contacts. The duo was too busy firing at two brand new enemy Banshee fliers that were swooping in over the cliffs, and another ambush ledge that wasn't at all inconspicuous.

The Phantom's triple 'Heavies' could glass the entire ledge in a matter of a few inescapable barrages, but Fin 'Goramai was holding fire so as not to turn Ludo into an airborne sculpture. The instant he was out of the line of fire, Zuvo proceeded to morph the ledge into a liquid inferno.

Ludo was maybe thirty feet above the bow of the Scarab's main deck. Directly below him and tragically unaware, a single Brute was standing tall and shooting away. He wasn't taking any cover; Ludo assumed he was providing covering fire for allies. Ludo maxed out the Jump Pack's gravity meter. He dropped fast, as though he were a magnet the Scarab was powerfully attracted to, and landed on the ape like an anvil.

The Brute never knew what hit it, and it wasn't getting up. Ludo restored the Jump Pack to its default settings and was immediately attacked by his victim's vengeful compatriots. The first two were running towards him shooting spikes and plasma while the two behind them followed close behind in a menacing lumber.

Ludo met them first, darting left, then right, zig-zagging through the hail fire until he closed the gap. He slammed his spiker blades into the forehead of the first Brute, then parried a bayonet swing and planted an open palm in the second's solar plexus. That one was sent reeling backwards and tripped over the body of a fallen Sangheili Major as third and fourth moved in. Ludo smashed the third Brute's jaw with his next punch, then ducked under a spiker bayonet swing and delivered a blow to the fourth's gut.

The first Brute assailant had just fallen to his knees, so Ludo plucked his spiker from its skull and used it to dispatched the fourth with a nearly decapitating strike. Ludo sized up the third Brute, the last foe, bloody faced and berserk and coming at him like an offensive lineman. Ludo cut the attack short by stepping into the charge and thrusting his arm forward. The spiker's dual bayonets impaled the Brute through both eyes.

The Brute seized and convulsed, with his mouth open in a silent scream.

Still moving? Still alive.

Ludo pulled back on the trigger and drove a few spikes directly into its brain, then lifted the weapon up, and kicked the beast off his spiker and onto the floor.

Done.

He turned at the buzzing of a thousand angry bees and saw one of the humans, an Imp, staring down at the second Brute with an overcharged plasma pistol and a malicious sneer. She blasted him with the green sphere and melted him to the ground.

Taking her attention from her kill to Ludo, her features changed to not surprise or gratitude, but oddly, recognition. Ludo had never seen this human before in his life, but she studied him anyway. The Plague watched her, cold and unresponsive, yet carefully analyzing. Always analyzing.

After a moment or so, she opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when they heard a Brute roar, a shotgun blast, and another human cry out in pain, in that order. Her eyes widened with fear and she spun around and sprinted to the ramp that led down to the lowermost deck, pistol glowing brighter as she charged up another ball of energy.

The convoy arrived at the drop off where the Arbiter first inquired about the control room. Ludo decided it was safe to call it in. He'd fought enough human's to know how resilient they could be, and was sure that a single Brute wouldn't be too much to handle. He contacted the Shipmaster again as he turned and stared out across the vast beach below.

"The Scarab is cleared, Commander."