Halo: FUBAR Chapter 02 - Lone Wolf

Story by SniperSpartan-977 on SoFurry

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#2 of Halo: FUBAR


Previously:

"Moooooother-fuuuuuucker!"

Corporal Seth Sawyer woke with the mother of all hangovers to find he'd almost been blown up by a plasma bomb. Accompanied by his NCO, Sergeant Boone, the two ODST made their way through the city to find it under sudden Covenant occupation. After a run in with a brute, Seth is forced to move through the flooded subway tunnels to make up for lost time, only to have a close encounter of the fifth kind with a group of horny drones.

"Do not fuck with Queen Nezz's hive! Nezz's hive fucks you."

Making it out of that situation with most of his sanity intact, he managed to rendezvous with Boone, only to discover the colony of Olduvai was under full scale Covenant invasion.

"The Covenant will overrun this city and find the civilian bunkers."

Thus begins the corporal's quest to save both the colony, and his own skin.

---***---

Halo: FUBAR

Chapter 02

[Lone Wolf]

> 2552, Olduvai, The Inner Colonies, Mission Time: 3 Hours.

Gunfire rattled through the air. In the distance were explosions. I thanked God that we were nowhere near the fighting. But I figured it was only a matter of time before we stepped into the shit. Following Sergeant Boone around, I was bound to be shot at sometime soon. Let's not forget the hell he'd put me through already.

"Hold up." The sergeant whispered as we neared another crossroad.

I moaned, halting behind the sergeant with my SMG shouldered, lowering to a crouch. This was the eighth time in the past two minutes. Every bloody street we came to there was something wrong. Boone had the tendency to trust his gut a little too much. His gut always told him, 'there's an ambush up ahead' or 'I've got a bad feeling about this street.' I couldn't blame him for being cautious, but this was just getting ridiculous.

Leaning around the corner, the sergeant took in the sights and quickly ducked back down before shifting on one knee and turning to face me. First he pointed at his eyes, then gave a thumbs down, then pointed around the corner into the next street. He then pointed at me, and made a sharp pointing motion across the crossroads. In normal English, that meant: "I see enemies around the next corner. Make a break for the opposite end of this crossing." Which really meant: "Run into the open and draw fire so I can kill all the bad-guys and take the credit."

I quickly shook my head. I wasn't willing to test today's good luck by running into the open like a headless idiot.

The sergeant repeated the hand signals, thinking I didn't understand.

"No, you fucking retard." I whispered now. "I'm not going."

The sergeant's visor stared at mine blankly. Then he repeated the sequence of signals again.

"Okay!" I hissed, rising to my feet. "Fine... fucking douche." As per usual, Boone ignored me.

Leaning forward, I peeked around the corner. There was indeed a standard squad bad guys. Four grunts with needlers, two jackals with pulse carbines and two brutes with spike rifles. But these weren't like the Covenant we had encountered last night. These were all male, and unlike the female from the previous night that wore rudimentary armour, this brute was in full blue tinted power armour. According to us, these were the normal Covenant we were used to fighting. Good. Maybe the craziness that had ensued in the darkness had subsided and things could go back to normal.

Lowering my head, I sprinted forward, long quick strides, weapon in both hands and pointed downward, my back arched and head down. I managed to clear the open space in a few seconds. It felt longer though. Like a lifetime had passed before I reached the opposite corner of the crossing.

Sliding to a halt on the far end of the crossing, I pressed my shoulder against the nearest wall and peeked around the corner. The aliens were looking the other way. None of them had seen me.

"It doesn't look like they know we're here." Boone muttered over the radio. "We should just let them move on. Be patient, and don't do anything stupid."

"Me do anything stupid?" I replied in a low tone. "I'm actually worried you're going to relapse into a severe case of..."

I wanted to say 'stupidity,' but I couldn't quite finish the sentence.

The word died in my throat as I heard the distinct crack of a sniper rifle. The impossibly loud gunshot echoed off into the distance as I watched in slow motion as a white tracer passed through a brute's head. The alien froze for a second, head split down the middle, dark blood spurting out the gaping head-wound, before the ape-like creature slumped to the ground. My eyes flitted left, following the tracer. But before I found the shooter, I already knew who had fired.

"Sarge! What the fuck!" I cried, my eyes connecting the tracer with Boone's muzzle. His rifle was level, eye down the scope and the smoke was still coming out of the weapon's barrel.

"They spotted us!" Boone cried out. "Take cover and return fire!"

I ducked back, hiding as the Covenant squad turned and fired in Boone's direction. "What do you mean, us?" I snapped. "You can go right ahead and fix the mess you fucking caused!"

Pulse rounds flickered past the sergeant as he fired again and ducked back into cover. Spikes thudded into the wall beside Boone, and pink shards of energy glanced off the hard surfaces, some popping out of existence in mid flight, other exploding upon impact. The volley of fire kicked up clouds of dust that swirled around the sergeant, but still he managed to peek around and fire again.

That's when I heard a sudden loud 'K'chink!' followed by a soft, slow beeping noise. Cocking an eyebrow, I slowly turned my head and leaned around the corner I used for cover. My eyes widened as I stared at a brute spike grenade lodged in the wall, mere inches from my face. The beeping rapidly sped up, in time with the red 'primed' light blinking at the top of the stick-shaped explosive device.

I managed to duck down just in time. The grenade exploded, tossing shrapnel into the ground beside my right foot. Half the wall came down and rubble bounced off my helmet. The bang was deafening. For a moment everything went black as I felt the shockwave shake my armour and the gel-layer underneath.

The next thing I knew, I was on hands and knees. The world swayed, blurry and doubled as I looked up. There was a ringing in my ears. I looked right and saw the sergeant unload more rounds at the Covenant.

Slowly my vision returned to normal and focused. My ears hurt, but sounds started coming back in fragments. A crack of gunfire here. The whine of alien weapons there.

Forcing myself up, I stood and leaned against the partially disintegrated wall I used for cover. There was a cap where my head had been seconds ago, an entire section blown off by a single grenade.

Noise screamed in my ears now. It was almost too much to bear for a moment. Then it returned to normal. As Boone yelled something.

"Hostiles in cover!" the sergeant shouted. "Kid, pull the left trigger and put a pineapple in there!"

Let it go on record, that I had no idea, and still have no idea what the fuck pulling the left trigger meant. The pineapple was a nickname for fragmentation grenade, however. That, I did know.

SMG clamped in one hand, I reached down and pulled my only grenade off the mag-strip on my belt. Looking at the device, I checked it was in working order. Who knows, my little dive the previous night could have affected it. Everything seemed in order. I decided to go with it.

I've never cooked a grenade. I never felt comfortable holding explosives. If I could help it I wouldn't even carry frags with me on a mission. But often I wouldn't have a choice. I flicked open the safety topper and depressed the red button. The weapon armed, it started beeping, a red tracer lighting up on the bottom of the device. Leaning out of cover I threw it under handed, as quickly as possible. I didn't even see where it landed, ducking back into cover and lowering my head.

Exactly two seconds later there was another explosion, this one, thankfully, farther away from my head. Swapping shoulders, I gripped my SMG in my left hand, pressed it against my shoulder-armour and leaned out of cover, and snapped up the weapon, peering down the sights.

A dozen meters away I saw a dazed grunt gripping his face, idling around in circles. The blast must have killed some of his buddies and knocked his re-breather off his face. I fired a short burst, putting the creature out of his misery with a trio of rounds in the head. The creature squealed and toppled backwards, flopping to the ground like a dead fish, fluorescent blood splattering all over the road around him.

"Boom! Headshot, bitch!" I yelled at the creature. But my smile and high spirits faded as the smoke cleared to reveal a brute in a headlong charge, aimed straight at me. "Awww, nuts."

The brute's power armour had overloaded thanks to the grenade and literally exploded. Some of the plating had been torn off in the resulting electronic blast, some of the other plates still smoking violently with arks of energy running across the shaggy fur of the beast, which stood up straight thanks to the static electricity.

I ducked away and turned to run when a chain of gunfire rang out. The familiar chatter of MA5 fire was unmistakable, followed by the dying roars of a brute. The sustained assault rifle fire continued, earning the screeches of a jackal, and some panicked screams of some grunts.

"Feet don't fail me now!" the excited bark of a grunt rang out, just as the little monkey-dog ran straight past my position. He was quickly followed by a hail of yellow tracers. The armour piercing rounds punched clean through the squad alien's armour, tossing the creature to the ground where it flopped around a bit in a pool of fluorescent slime.

"Charming." I muttered, straightening up and stepping around the corner.

That's when I saw green. Green was good. The UNSC's local militia were clad in green fatigues. These marines didn't sport full body armour and advanced combat training like the sergeant and myself, but they had enough training and firepower to hold their own in a fight. These marines were in full uniform, green fatigues, elbow and knee pads with ballistic combat vests, MA5C assault rifles and BR55HB battle rifles clutched in their gloved hands. Their helmets didn't cover the face like mine, but included ballistic eye protection. Only one of the marines didn't wear a helmet, a tall and broad dark skinned man with a trim beard and dark eyes. He wore a green service cap over his cropped black hair and had a short stub of a cigar lodged between his pearly whites.

"Ooh-rah, motherfuckers!" the dark skinned man barked in a deep, sultry voice. "Don't mess with the corps!"

"Man am I glad to see you guys!" I managed to exclaim with glee, swapping the SMG into my right hand again and swiftly moving closer. "Seriously guys, my sergeant is acting really wei..." I didn't get to finish as the dark skinned sergeant major walked right past me and towards Sergeant Boone.

"Sergeant Major Token." Boone said with a nod. "Good to see you." He held out a hand and they shook.

"Uh, hello?" I called out from the background. "Is anyone listening?"

"Nice to see some of the ODST survived." The dark skinned man, Token replied, hanging his battle rifle in its sling and pulling the cigar stub out of his mouth. "What's your situation?"

"We are getting the fuck out of here!" I shouted.

"We're going to hit that bitch where it hurts." Boone said, pointing up at the carrier hanging over the skyline.

"Sounds like a plan." Sergeant Major Token nodded. "We'll help you out. We're sick of running and hiding from these Covvie-fuckwits anyway. Time for them to board the pain-train."

I hung my head, defeated. The madness had spread across the UNSC.

That was when I didn't think things could get worse. I shouldn't have thought that, because right then, things did get worse.

A long wail rang out across the city, probably the whole colony. Several long sonic booms cracked through the sky. A flicker lit up the dispersing clouds above our heads. Looking up I saw a great ball of fire break through the clouds and arc over the city. It was huge. Belching black smoke in its wake, bits of flaming debris peeling off the skin. It was a UNSC ship, a cruiser class to be exact. I couldn't make out the name painted on the side, but I could tell she was one of the orbital defences. There was no way the Earth fleet could have sent us reinforcements this quickly. It would take at least twenty-four hours for a ship in slip space to reach Olduvai from any of the other closest inner colonies. That was considering of course we managed to squeeze off a distress signal at all.

The fall of fire scythed down with impossible speed and hit the ground several miles away. My eyes were wide and my gut clenched. The ground rumbled and shook violently enough to cause everyone to stumble. I fell to one knee, looking up to see a massive cloud of dust shoot up into the sky. That's when the shockwave hit. It rippled outward and shattered windows, knocked over cars and threw marines off their feet. I was thrown clean off the ground and hit something.

Black was all I could register.

I had no idea how long I'd been out of it. But when I woke I was indoors and looking up at a ceiling. Torch lights flickered across what looked like a dark diner. Tables and chairs were thrown aside to make more floor space. Marines were rushing between windows, pulling down shutters and piling debris up to block entry points.

Slowly I managed to sit up and look around. Only one window was open, and all I could see was brown. Thick clouds of dust swirled all over, creating a light haze inside, but a solid mass of brown mist outside. I couldn't see outside further than a few meters. Climbing to my feet I spotted Boone.

The sergeant walked over and held out my SMG. I snatched it back and extended the stock. I could almost hear my following orders already.

"I need you to go out there, kid." Boone said, exactly as I predicted.

"How about no." I replied sharply.

"Several escape pods landed after the cruiser hit." Boone explained. "There could be survivors out there. One landed just a few blocks away. If we want to find all those pods we need to access the emergency frequency, but it's encrypted so the covenant won't be able to pick up on them. We need the exact frequency of the emergency beacons, but we don't have the equipment decrypt the emergency frequency. Get to that pod and retrieve the encryption code."

"That..." I paused thinking for a while. "That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard of. Why would the Covenant need to home in on an emergency frequency. A flying freaking brick isn't exactly hard to spot!"

"Get out there and retrieve the frequency. We'll hold up here and try to call for some air support." Boone said before turning away and walking to where Sergeant Major Token stood, barking orders at his radio man.

I stood there for a little while, wondering if everyone here was serious. Nothing of the task I had been given made sense. I was expected to go out there, search for an escape pod and retrieve an encrypted frequency... I had to stop there. Trying to figure out which parts were kosher and what was bullshit was giving me a headache.

"Just go with it, Seth." I told myself, climbing out of the window and wandering into the thick dust. "Put up with it, and soon enough you'll be able to slip away and go home." I thought to myself that I could use the escape pod to drop an emergency beacon, and maybe be found by someone else who would actually attempt to keep me alive through this ordeal. I could only hope.

"Hey, kid!" I looked over my shoulder to see Sergeant Major Token and one other marine ran over. "We'll come with you. Give you some backup."

"Great." I replied sarcastically before moving on. "I feel safer already."

The streets were obscured by walls of dust. It was impossible to see more than two meters from my visor. Shapes and shadows swirled all around us. A few times I lost my bearings and almost ran into walls, or abandoned cars, or even chunks of rubble just randomly lying in the middle of the street. I had no idea how I was supposed to find this escape pod in this mess. Almost half an hour passed of us, three soldiers wandering through the clouds of dust, weapons hanging by our sides in one hand, the other feeling ahead so we wouldn't run headlong into anything nasty.

"Did you find it yet?" Boone's voice came over the radio.

"Have you started acting normal yet?" I replied bitterly.

"Keep searching. You're not far." Boone said, making me wonder how the hell he knew where I was.

There was a moment silence. There weren't even distant gunshots or explosions from the sperratic fighting around the city.

"Sarge, we're lost." I admitted after a while.

Suddenly a NAV point popped up on my HUD, a small orange triangle with the digits 145m above it indicating the distance I was from the objective.

"Well that's convenient." I muttered, wondering why the hell I wasn't given a bearing like this on my objective sooner. No, that would have actually made sense.

Weapon raised I pushed forward, moving faster to make up for lost time. Behind me, the other two matched my pace. It was not nice out there. Every shadow could be an enemy. There could have been an ambush waiting for us.

My caution paid off.

I froze dead as a hazy figure moved past on my left. I swivelled to face it, weapon pointed at the ground. The figure moved lazily closer, until finally I could make out more details.

A jackal, wrist mounted energy shield on one wrist, plasma pistol in the other hand. His gun hand was up in front of his snout, waving away dust so he could breathe. The alien screeched over his shoulder at the single grunt following closer, who rubbed his eyes, unable to see in the thick layers of muck.

My weapon snapped up and burped out a sustained burst. The volley of caseless rounds hit the jackal in his exposed side, cutting the alien down in an explosion of purple blood. The grunt screamed, jumping on the spot and throwing his long arms up above his head with surprise. I imagined the marines would fire now, take out the other enemy in a synchronised attack.

I waited.

The grunt turned and sighted me.

Still no gunfire.

The plasma pistol glowed sickly green energy...

"Oh, fuck it!" I cried, unleashing another burst, booting the squat alien out of the land of the living.

As the aliens fell silent, I swept left to right, searching for more contacts, moving forward more slowly now. There was no way I only had to fight just two aliens. My luck was good, but not that good.

I whirled around on the marines now, who stood by, looking like they were important. "What the hell?" I shouted loudly, causing them to straighten up. "You could have shot that grunt for me! Do I have to do everything?"

"You had it under control." Token reasoned. "Can't put your fire out while you're on a roll. That'd be downright mean."

"Fire?" I yelled. "That alien could have killed me."

"To be honest," the other marine spoke up with an Australian accent. "I didn't even see anything."

"I fired at them!" I shouted at the Australian now. "Wouldn't you think to look where I'm shooting, then just for the sake of making sure, turn and shoot the same direction? What kind of backup are you supposed to be?"

Token and the marine looked at each other and shrugged.

That was when everything fell apart... again.

The brute came out of nowhere. His eyes glowed red in the mist as the alien lashed out with an arm as thick as a tree. A hammer like fist bore down on my head as I turned and saw the gorilla-alien charge. Pure instinct kicked in. I hadn't even realised I'd moved until the brute's berserking charge whooshed past as I stepped aside.

The brute carried forward and connected with Sergeant Major Token. The man's wind was crushed out of him as he was slammed headfirst into the ground. A sickening crack later, the sergeant major was gone. I didn't wait around to make sure Token was still alive. This time I cleared more distance between us, diving away and curling into a ball. I hit the ground hard and rolled to my feet, glancing over my shoulder as the brute moved to charge again.

"Crikey, she's a big one!" the Australian marine yelled as the brute darted closer. The man didn't even fire as the alien crabbed him, lifted him high above his head and broke the marine over his knee.

Twisting and walking backwards, I fired as the brute dropped the dead marine. The mighty alien flinched off every round, ignoring the little pockmarks the low calibre weapon left in his thick hide. I needed something with a bit more bang for its buck.

I stumbled backwards into a car as the brute ran closer. Thinking on my feet, I pulled the passenger side door open and jumped in, slamming the door and lock shut behind me. The brute ran headlong into the vehicle, smashing one of the rear windows and tearing a wing mirror off. I crawled away, sitting sideways in the driver seat as the beast took hold of the vehicle and started rocking it violently. Quickly I lashed out with a foot and jabbed my heel down on a button on the passenger side door, causing the electric window to whir loudly and slide shut in the brute's face.

Letting out an angry roar, the alien raised a fist and punched it clean through the glass. At the same time I opened the driver door and tumbled out of the car. Landing upside down, I quickly rolled backwards and scrambled to my feet to see the brute move around the rear of the vehicle. Now where was I supposed to go?

An open door behind me. I didn't hesitate and ran into the open building, slamming the old fashioned wooden, hinged door shut behind me. There were no locks from what I could see, and the plywood would not hold the beast back for a second. I had to hide, but hearing the heavy footsteps outside, I knew I didn't even have time for that.

I quickly pressed myself flat against the wall behind the door.

The next thing I knew, the door was thrown off its hinges in a flurry of splinters and black fur. The wood hit me in the chest, but I didn't budge, eyes fixed on the brute as it passed mere inches in front of me. The alien tore right past, running down the hall, eyes searching everywhere except behind him.

Stepping out, I snapped up my SMG and took aim. Back of the brainpan... but I reconsidered. Brute skulls were thick, and not just because they were dumb-fucks. It took a lot more than an SMG round to crack that thick mass of bone open. I knew damn well if I fired now I'd only piss him off more.

That's when I spotted a barrel standing in the bare hall beside the brute. It was red, with an explosive hazard painted on the side. It was worth a try.

Shifting my aim down, I unleashed the rest of my magazine into the barrel. Sparks erupted across the side and the lid popped off the top, flames spreading up the wall and belching thick smoke into the air. The brute half turned, locking eyes with mine.

I didn't stick around to say 'hi.' Leaping sideways, I threw myself out the nearest window and hit the street outside with a painful thud.

The moment I landed I scrambled backwards, pinning my back against the wall below the window and curling up in a ball, hands over my helmet. The world shook and span. The explosion was near deafening and roared out into the distance. Flames and smoke, dust and debris belched out the windows above me. The brute's roar was drowned out by the boom, and was followed by blissful silence. Looking up, I slowly pushed myself to my feet and looked around. Bits of smouldering debris hung in the air. Scorch marks stained the walls inside the hallway I'd just blown up and the wallpaper smouldered on the walls. The brute was nowhere to be seen. All I saw was a dark smear on the floor, last place I'd seen him.

"Boom, bee-atch!" I shouted at the smear of blood before stooping and picking up my SMG. I couldn't figure out where that random explosive barrel had come from, or why it was standing in the hall of an apartment building, but I didn't care. It saved my ass.

Flicking out the empty magazine and pushing a new one in place, I moved on towards the objective. The haze of dust had settled, leaving over a dozen meters in front of me visible. This made moving around much less claustrophobic. Less worried about what lay around the next corner I broke into a run, seeing the digits above my NAV point countdown to 12m.

The escape pod loomed into sight, a light shadow at first, slowly transforming into a solid shape, and then into the pod in its full glory as I got closer. I slowed to a walk, shouldering my weapon as I came within a metre of the vessel. It was a cylindrical craft with a rounded nose, capable of housing ten plus one pilot. It wasn't much in the way of armour or tech. All it needed were the control boosters and air foils. It wasn't designed for a second flight when launched. All it had to do was get the inhabitants safely on the ground.

I moved around the back of the craft where the hatch lay strewn on the ground. Peeking inside I saw the crash seats facing the rear were empty. Even the pilot's chair had no inhabitants. The survivors from this pod must have scooted already...

A roar caught my attention, but by the time I turned to face it, it was already too late...

The brute's burnt flesh was a blur as a fist made contact with my chest, leaving a dark red smear. My boots left the ground and I hit the floor inside the crashed pod hard, the back of my head smashing against the pilot's seat. My head span. In fact, the whole world span. Darkness closed in around the edges of my vision. I blinked, my vision focusing to the change of light sluggishly. I managed to focus on the brute however.

He was burnt, head to toe, patches of skin completely blackened and peeling away to reveal blood smeared bone underneath. The smell of burnt hair was thick in the air. He'd left a smear of his own blood on my armour where he'd stricken me, and now cradled the charred skin that had peeled away as a result of the blow.

Shifting my gaze, I saw where my weapon had landed beside me.

I reached out and grabbed my SMG, held it up in one hand and squeezed the trigger. The weapon kicked and sprayed rounds everywhere. Some hit the interior of the escape pod, sparking and bouncing around. But the vast majority landed in the brute's flesh. The sheer amount of trauma rocked the alien backwards. He hit the ground with a wet smack and didn't stir.

A deep breath later I rested my head back and let the darkness embrace me.

I woke later. Not sure how much later though. Must have been half an hour or so, fifteen minutes at the very least. I remember the first thing I felt.

There was a cool breeze in my pants. A shiver caused my body to shake. And as a response, she suckled a little harder.

My eyes flew open as I weakly lifted my head to look down at the jackal sitting on her knees between my legs. I had a raging boner, and it was engulfed deep into the muzzle of this brown scaled jackal, lips clamped tight around the shaft. The alien's slanted blue eyes looked up at me with a certain innocence, as if asking me if she was doing good. I opened my mouth to protest, but as her narrow tongue slithered up and down the bottom of my shaft, then flickered over the head engulfing my erection in her hot saliva, I couldn't quite let out anything other than a moan.

Her eyes smiled as she heard me moan and saw my head rock back. One of my hands gripped one of the crash seats I was propped up against so tightly I could have ripped the seat off the wall. My other reached out and found her shoulder. Slowly her head started bobbing up and down as she suckled sweetly, tongue teasing the head of my cock. I stiffened for a moment and she stopped, but as I went limp again, my fingers slipped from the hard scales on her shoulder. This jackal was like the first few I'd seen on Olduvai the other night. Tall for her species, slim with delicate features and a long beak-like muzzle. She had emerald green quills coming elegantly out the back of her head and curving down slightly. She had wide hips, with a short, stubby tail, a narrow waist and a reasonable bust. The kind of breasts every high-school slut wished she could have. Not too big, not too small either.

A horrible thought popped up in my mind as her tongue wrapped all the way around my shaft and started rubbing up and down, driving my senses wild. What if she was like the drones? What if jackals laid eggs in their mates?

I couldn't care less as her head bobbed again, faster this time, engulfing my whole boner with each thrust. This girl wasn't violently raping me like the drones had. She was tender. Every move was slow and cautious. She was doing this for my enjoyment too, not just her own.

She started moaning as I realised she had one hand on my belt, holding my armour's crotch guard out of her way, but the other was nowhere to be seen. I could only guess what she was doing to please herself as I heard a feint wet, sticky smacking noise in time with each sweet moan she let out.

And then suddenly, just like that she stopped. Sucking hard for one thrust, earning a shudder from me, the jackal opened her mouth and let my erection flick out of her muzzle. Her other hand came up now, glistening with her clear juices like my member glistened with her saliva and held it still as her tongue licked up and down.

Suddenly she stood and shifted closer to me, sitting in my lap with her thighs wrapped around my waist. Looking down I saw the chest plate of her armour was missing, discarded on the floor beside us, exposing her scaled breasts, a single dark pink erect nipple on each. My eyes moved down further and I saw she didn't actually wear anything... you know. 'Down there.' She had a belt with some pouches on it around her waist, and suspended from the belt was a teal loincloth that fell down to her knees, blocking her privates from view at the front and back. As she pushed the cloth aside at the front, I could clearly see her glistening mound, lips parted to reveal the tender pink flesh within and ready to receive a mate.

It was at that point I looked up and saw the lust in her eyes. It was at that point I just said... fuck it! My hands wrapped around her waist, then slowly slid upwards over the smooth, hard scales, rolling over her firm breasts, my thumbs rubbing her tender nipples. The jackal opened her muzzle in a silent moan, eyes shut and threw her head back. The sensation must have been good. Her hips started bucking and I felt a drip of moisture hit the head of my erection. She was really, really wet. It must have been a trait of her species. Not even the drones were this bad... okay, the drones were this bad, but the drones were fucking gross. This seemed more... human, oddly enough.

Suddenly the jackal couldn't contain herself anymore. She moaned and screeched, letting out a typical cry I had heard time and time again on the battlefield. It sounded like a jackal war cry, only this time I knew she wasn't yelling alien profanities at me.

Her hips sank down and her warm, wet lips touched the head of my erection. Her vagina slowly parted and my head slipped in first, followed quickly by the shaft as the jackal didn't hesitate. In one quick thrust I was all the way inside her wet tunnel. Her muscles immediately contracted, and I felt her grow even wetter. Her whole body trembled as she came. Her back arched and she let out another long screech as my thumbs continued to rub her nipples. This went on for at least a minute. Her hips bucked lightly, her legs shook uncontrollably, her back was caught in an arched position and her head was thrown back. Long moans of ecstasy escaped her throat. Her screeches filled my ears and my mind. Juices flowed from her like a never ending waterfall as her muscles contracted and flexed.

Suddenly her hands came up and touched mine, stopping me. She cooed, chirping in a soft tone, her eyes staring into my visor with a look of delightful agony as her never ending orgasm ended. My helmet's translator instantly kicked in to translate.

"Please..." she whimpered. "Please, too much... too good... it's killing me..." she broke into a moan as she leaned forward, pressing her body against mine and wrapped her arms around my neck. Slowly she started to buck her lips, sliding up and down over my erection, her pussy clamped tight around me, spreading her natural lubricants all over the shaft. "Gods." She whimpered as she slid up and down. "Gods, it's nice... so nice... oooooh."

Her hips moved faster, her squeals growing louder and more high pitched. Her legs trembled again as she rotated her hips, grinding harder, increasing the length of thrusts so each time I dug deeper. Until finally she exploded again. Her juices leaked into my lap as an orgasm caused her to shake involuntarily, this time more violently than the last. She was drawing short, laboured breaths, her tongue rolling out the corner of her mouth, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her hips moved forward and back, grinding and bucking...

It was too much. I came at the same time. Semen travelled up and shot into her. She screeched again, feeling it, one hand warmly clasping her belly while the other clamped hard on my neck. Slowly, as the feelings of ecstasy subsided and our fluttering hearts slowed, her hand raked down my chest and she looked down, eyes shut and a warm smile on her muzzle.

After a while her blue eyes opened and looked up at me. Slowly she rose to her feet, grabbing her chest plate as she went. I left her body with a wet pop as she stepped back and pulled on her armour. In one quick move she was dressed again and moved to leave.

I stared at her slender back as the jackal paused by the open hatch. Her delicate hand rested on the bulkhead for a moment before she glanced over her shoulder and let a small smile flicker at the corner of her muzzle.

"Thank you, human." She said audibly, English this time. It sounded screechy, but it was intelligible.

"No worries." I replied dryly.

Turning away, the jackal bent over, showing off the smooth curvature of her back side as she picked up her pulse carbine and visor then disappeared from view, leaving me there with a strange look hidden behind my helmet faceplate.

Shaking it off, I quickly reached down, put my junk away and zipped up my fly before re-adjusting the groin-guard. I cannot find the words right now to describe to you how random that encounter was. This certainly was proving to be an obscure day.

"Kid, you at the pod yet?" Boone's voice suddenly rang out.

"Yeah, I'm here." I muttered, too tired to insult the sergeant.

"Good. Retrieve the comms box." Boone ordered. "We've linked up with the militia air-corps. We scrambled some pelicans and a hornet. We're oscar mike to you now."

Rising to my feet, I holstered my SMG and moved up beside the pilot's chair. On the console was a small red box sticking out of the console. It couldn't be more obvious. This was no doubt some kind of beacon. Leaning over the computer console, I flicked on one of the switches and saw a display wink to life. Immediately I saw a message pop up.

'Activate sub-space distress beacon?'

Sub-space distress beacons were generally used to relay a distress call to UNSC troops light-years away. It could reach all the way back to earth from here. Only some lifeboats, typically those employed by cruiser CIC crew were fitted with these beacons. Luckily I had stumbled into one such escape pod.

I touched the 'Y' on the screen and immediately the little green light on top of the red box glowed for a moment, then dimmed. The beacon was broadcasting. Boone would get his encryption codes from it. I would be broadcasting my position to UNSC combat search and rescue personnel.

Grabbing hold of the box with both hands, I pulled it out of the slot in the console with a tug and tucked it away into a large pouch on the back of my belt.

"Good work, kid!" Boone cried, startling me. How the hell did he know I'd picked up the box? "Now grab that sniper rifle. The pelicans are going to need some sniper cover when they move in to rescue survivors by the escape pods."

I turned my head and spotted the rifle in question lying on the floor by my feet. I hadn't even realised it was there until now... a cold chill ran down my spine as I realised Boone somehow knew everything I was up to.

"Sarge." I whispered back over the radio. "Get out of my fucking head."

"We're incoming now." Boone said obliviously.

I bent down and picked up the sniper rifle. It was in pristine condition. Heavy too. Shouldering the long barrelled weapon, I stepped out of the escape pod and looked around. The mist had completely cleared, leaving only a mild haze. At least I could see the clear sky now, a hornet gunship and three pelican drop ships flying closer. The Covenant carrier was visible again too, much to my dismay. Part of me wanted it to just disappear magically, as my new sniper rifle had magically appeared.

Glancing down, I saw the burnt brute was still present, mouth and eyes hanging open and gaping at the sky. That bitch had almost killed me. In fact, this whole time I've had my life put in jeopardy by Sergeant Boone.

As I waited for the hornet VTOL gunship to lower to my position so I could jump on one of the stabiliser mounted seats, I made up my mind. It was clear that if I continued to hang out with the sergeant I'd be going home in a box... if my corpse made it off the planet at all. I was all for saving the colony from the Covenant, but if I was going to do it properly, I was going to have to ditch Boone.

My mind was made. First opportunity I got, I was disappearing.