Disclaimer: Halo, and all characters from the books/games are not my property.
Gunnery Sgt. Avery Johnson:
Reasons
Pt. 2
A Halo Based FanFic
By Salaadin
11/28/06
“It’s empty!” Walker whispered.
“Yeah it’s like we’re in your head.” Perez replied.
“Shut up you dick! Where are they?” Walker asked. The lift dropped us on the deck of an empty room. There were a bunch of Covenant storage bins and a Wraith parked inside.
“Quien?” Perez asked Walker.
“The Covenant! Where the hell are they?” The Master Chief approached one of the doors. It must have been motion activated because when the Chief got up to it, the door opened and an Elite clad in red was standing there on the other side. The Elite was caught off guard by the sight of the Chief and flinched. The Chief tackled the Elite and bashed his brains out on the deck. I was hoping that our presence was still going to go unnoticed for a while still. Then reality reached out smacked us in the mouth. Another door opened up and a bunch of Covenant piled into the room, guns blazing.
“No Covenant, huh? You just had to open your mouth, didn’t you?” an ODST corporal said.
They came at us from all four sides. At first I thought they were going to overwhelm us. The Chief tossed a plasma grenade into a corridor just as the hatch opened. It stuck to a Grunt and the little **** panicked and ran back into the hallway. The door closed behind him and I think I heard an Elite shout Fool! just before the charge went off. That gave us room enough to breath.
We were able to keep the Covenant assaults limited to incursions from one door at a time. If two doors came open then either the Chief would toss a grenade through it or Barry would hit it with a Jackhammer while we mopped up the others.
So far no one had died and I was beginning to think it was going to stay that way. Then I saw a plasma grenade flying through the air towards the Chief. He had his back turned and I know he didn’t see it. Parker had though. She jumped in the way and the grenade hit her square in the chest. I turned and fired in the direction the grenade had come from. A camouflaged Elite had snuck into the room. It became easier to see after I hit it with a burst of 7.62mm armor piercing.
Parker didn’t even break stride. She ran right for the previously camouflaged Elite and when she went up, she took that Covie bastard with her. It was a good death.
We cleared the room and the attacks stopped. The Chief led us down a corridor until we reached a big reinforced door. The Spartan started looking off into space. He must have been talking with his onboard A.I.
“There’s a hanger that will lead us to the Shuttle Bay on the other side of that door. From the Shuttle Bay we should have access to the rest of the ship. Johnson, I want your men to hold your position behind this door. I’ll circle around and open it from the other side.” He said to me.
He took off back the way we came without waiting for acknowledgment.
“Sarge, I get the feeling we’re the ones getting baby sat, now.” Walker said to me.
“Me too, and to hell with that!” I could already hear the sound of a fuel rod gun charging up the corridor.
“Corporal Hassan! I want you to rig this door to blow. If I don’t check in with you in ten minutes, blow the door and proceed with the mission. Mobuto, you’re with me. Lets get back into this fight.”
“Yessir!” The troops said in unison.
On the way I heard a Jackhammer go off followed by a roar filled with pain. Then I heard another roar that had a much angrier edge. It didn’t sound like good news for the Chief. At the entrance to the lift, I halted Mobuto. I saw that one Hunter was down and the other was firing his Fuel Rod gun at a cluster of Covie storage containers. One of the doors opened up across the way and a couple of Grunts waddled into the room from behind it.
“Stay here and make sure that big son of a bitch doesn’t get the drop on me. Don’t you move from this spot no matter what, son. If the Covenant gets the better of me in there go back to the rest of the crew and tell Hassan he’s in charge.” I slung my rifle and pulled my knife. The little bastards were going to try to flank the Chief. I hugged the wall of the room to stay out of eyeshot of the Grunts. I could walk faster than the little bastards could run, so I closed on them before they could accomplish the flank. When I caught up to them, I picked the one on the left up by the chin guard of his breathing apparatus and slit his throat for him. When I dropped it to the deck the other Grunt looked up at me with a look in its eyes that let me know it would have pissed its pants if it was wearing any. Then I pulled my Magnum and shot it in the face.
The first one dropped a plasma grenade. That damned Hunter was still firing on the Chief’s position. It was in a rage, but it knew sooner or later those crates were going to go up. I picked up the grenade and primed it. I tossed it at the Hunter and the grenade stuck to its back. When it went off, the Hunter wobbled a bit but that was the sum of the harm I’d done him. He twirled around and got an eyeful of me unslinging my rifle and pointing it his way. It wasn’t an invitation, but it might has well have been.
He forgot about the Chief and charged my position roaring like it had flipped its lid. “Yeah?! Well **** you, too!” I growled right back at the big son of a bitch. I flipped the selector on my rifle to full auto and let it rip.
When it closed the gap between us by half I started back peddling, but kept firing. I might as well have been using a water gun; almost every round bounced right off the damned things shield. The gun went dry just before I backed into another storage crate. I ducked around it trying to put something between me and the half-ton walking tank that wanted to put me in the hurt locker. The Hunter shouldered the crate and I went flying. Bastard sent me half the way across the room. I fell on the Wraith, my chest taking most of the impact. I could see stars, but I still had my rifle, so I got to my feet. I dashed around to the far side of the Wraith, reloading my weapon on the fly, took up a firing position, and opened up. The Hunter sent a couple of volleys of radioactive slugs my way but the Wraith was holding up. He gave up on the Fuel Rod Cannon and rushed me. I wheeled around looking for options. Before I could come up with something the **** strong S.O.B lifted the front end of the damned tank clean up off the ground with its shield. He leveled the gun at me again. I figured my ticket was about to get punched. Everything slowed down and went quiet. I had a frag grenade in my hands before I knew what I was doing. I saw the green glow of the Fuel Rod gun getting brighter; I started pulling the pin out of the grenade.
Parker died a damned fine death.
Then I heard a single gunshot.
The glow of the gun dimmed and the Hunter had frozen. Then all of a sudden the Wraith fell back to the deck and the Hunter right after it. I slid the pin back in place and looked up. I was still seeing stars, but there he was with one hand gripping a Magnum and the other one reaching down to me. The Chief pulled me up off the deck like I weighed as much as a kitten. He nodded in thanks and I nodded back. The Chief didn’t mince words and I could respect that.
He started looking out into space again. He must have been talking with Cortana again.
“Mobuto!” I yelled looking over where I came into the lift room. He was still there. He was good soldier. But, so were Perez and Walker and they were standing there too, ready to back me up; against orders “Get your ass over here, boy! And you two **** ups get over here, too!” They hustled over to the Wraith where me and the Chief were standing.
“The plan is still the same. Cortana has a fix on the Captains position. Keep your men stationed at the door to the hangar.” Chief said to me while my team approached.
“Pardon me, sir, but you can stow that order. I didn’t fight my way onto this tub just to stand around holding my dick.” I said just as my men got there.
“Walker, Perez! I thought I told you two to stay put!”
“Sir, It was Danny’s idea, Sir!” Walker said, mocking innocence.
“No hablo espanol, Senor Johnson!” Perez said smiling.
“Yeah and I’m gonna ‘no hablo’ both of your ass’s when we get back to Alpha base!” I chided. I was teasing but they damned sure were going to be cleaning the latrines if they made it back. “In the meantime, you two are gonna hold this room with those ODST’ s and this time you’re going to stay put! Am I making myself clear this time Marines?”
“Yessir!” Perez and Walker said in unison.
“Good! ‘Cause I mean it. I want this room to be UNSC property until we get back. This gravity lift is my way off this bucket and I don’t want any Covenant standing between me and the bottle of hooch I stole from Sliva’s office before the Pillar of Autumn went down.”
“Hassan!” I said over the comm.
“Sir?” he asked.
“You got that door rigged to blow yet?”
“Yessir!”
“Groovy. Give the detonator to the ODST corporal and you and Barry get your tales on up here. Make sure Barry is packing that Jackhammer.”
“Aye, aye, sir!”
To the Chief I continued, “Now like I was saying, my men aren’t Spartans but we are what you got to work with today. I’ve been fighting this War since I was a teenager. I’ve lost a sister to it, a wife. I’m not even the only man that saved your life today, Chief. I knew the woman that saved your hide ten minutes ago for ten years. More men have died under my command than I want to remember. But I do remember. I remember every last one of them. They were all soldiers and I know you understand why I won’t dishonor their bravery by hiding in a storage room when there’s fighting to get done. So, if you will lead the way, lets you and me get on with it.”
“I like him!” Cortana said through the Chief’s onboard speakers.
“You would.” The Chief replied.
He looked at me for a long moment before saying, “Alright, Sergeant. You’re with me.”
“That’s better. Can Cortana keep those other doors sealed until we get back?”
“I can seal them for now, but I can’t guarantee how long I can keep them locked out.” She replied.
“I’ll take all the time you can buy us.” I said just when Barry and Hassan arrived.
“How’s it going newly wed’s?” I asked. Hassan smiled and Barry stuck her tongue out in a gagging expression. “You four are gonna be my bouncers and this room is Club Johnson. Only one rule: No Covenant allowed. Keep that Jackhammer warmed up and ready to go in case the Covenant breaks through Cortana’s defenses.”
“Chief you ready to do this thing?” The Chief nodded. “Solid. Then lead the way. We got ass’s to kick.”
