Noble 7

On their way back out to the courtyard, Seven and Burke saw a troop of wounded soldiers being ushered into the bunker. One of the ushering troopers stayed behind and knelt at the entrance, assault rifle aimed skyward. He informed the two Spartans of the situation unfolding outside.

"We've got a Phantom on approach!"

Even as he said this, loud concussive thumps could be heard and felt striking the facility.

A trooper above them on the exterior defense detail yelled, "Man down! Man down!"

No!

Seven broke into a sprint and dropped to a knee out in the middle of the open.

"Laser, up!" he yelled as he swung the bulkier of the two rifles he had on his back around, pointed it up, and pulled the trigger.

A thin red laser shot forth and touched the Phantom. Like a painter with a brush, he gently eased the M6 Grindell downward until its laser rested on the dropship's turret. The weapon's whine grew from a curious meow to an annoying complaint directly beside Seven's ear. Then it screamed. What had been a thin red laser suddenly became as thick as a tree branch as a series of energy charges gave it the appearance of one continuous beam.

The Phantom's heavy turret didn't stand a chance. In a matter of seconds it went from raining death onto the troopers to raining to the floor in pieces. Then UNSC gunfire. The Grunt on the port side plasma cannon suddenly fell out and down to the floor as well. Seven heard voices behind him.

"Cover, cover!"

It was Burke. He and the trooper from the entrance were standing right behind him, firing up at the descending Phantom. Seeing this, Seven flipped open a hard case strapped to his leg and pulled out a crystal blue sphere the size of a large marble. They saw him raise his arm and stopped firing.

Seven slammed the sphere to the ground and smashed it into a thousand tiny shards and an aqua-tinted dome of energy expanded around them. The trooper, a Private First Class with the name tag J. Schultz, unlatched a frag from his web gear and stuck an arm out of the shield. One flick of the wrist and the grenade went skittering across the floor. It exploded just as a lance of Elites and Grunts were deployed.

"Fall back to the bunker!" Seven ordered.

The three of them ran through the bubble back over to their original cover, essentially putting two walls of energy between them and any of the grenade survivors in the retreat. Even as they reset behind various crates and combat barricades positioned near the mouth of the bunker, Seven was reminded that they weren't the only ones fighting. Automatic gunfire continued to ring out from the deck above them. Way off to their right, also on the upper deck, two troopers were opening fire on the Covenant's open flank. One had a DMR, the other a sniper rifle. It was the smoke trail from the latter that gave away their position.

One of the Elites made note of the smoke trail after a Grunt that was next to him got its methane tank blown off. The tall blue alien picked something up off the floor, pivoted, and hurled it at the two troopers. It blurred through the air. The sniper held his ground and cracked off a shot at the Elite, allowing Seven, who had by now switched to his DMR, to finish it off with a single shot. The trooper partnered with the fearless sniper saw where the grenade landed and could have dived to safety in the opposite direction, but instead rushed forth and tackled his teammate over the edge.

Seven felt time passing like an old snail as he watched the two troopers fall from the second level. The sniper smacked hard against an abandoned Covenant drop pod on the way down. The other trooper fell straight to the asphalt.

Move it medic. Get out there.

With his rifle still up, Seven turned his head to Burke, who was busy with his own targets.

He tapped his shoulder and pointed to the downed troopers and shouted, "I'm going for them, you got this?"

"Yeah, we got this," Burke assured. "I'll cover you, go!"

Seven again took off out into the open, running at a zigzag to dodge the flying needles and plasma bolts. A small handful of Grunts were spread out in his path, so he raised his DMR and fired and two of the squat little aliens toppled over backwards. A third disappeared behind a combat barricade only to be wounded by the sniper, who was now sitting up with a pistol. Seven contributed a shot and the Grunt fell sideways.

"Moving!" Burke yelled to the other troopers.

Seven couldn't help them. He had his own priorities. He reached the downed troopers in a few quick strides and smashed another crystal blue sphere open on the ground between them. The resulting shield grew to full size in seconds and Seven started making assessments.

"Where are you hurt?" he asked the sniper while Burke and the others kept the Covenant busy.

"My leg," the sniper groaned. "I landed on my leg."

"Can you move it at all?"

"I'm not sure, I... Ah!"

Seven quickly stopped him and said, "Okay, okay, just rest for a second."

Alright, that answers one question. Gonna have to carry them both out of here.

He panned around to make sure no lone covies were approaching the medic bubble. His personal radar would have picked up such a threat, but you could never be certain with technology, even if it was "state of the art". It was all clear. He did however, see Major Burke moving from cover to cover up to a group of enemies near a forklift and energy generator.

Back at the bunker entrance, the trooper on the upper deck and PFC Schultz on the ground level ran out of ammo within seconds of each other. Both ducked down to reload, and Burke was momentarily without covering fire. It didn't seem to affect his pace at all.

Seven watched him spike a frag and pause behind his next piece of cover. The frag hit the floor, bounced up, and sailed in an arc towards the Covenant soldiers. An unlucky Elite popped out of cover at the worst possible moment to return fire and bellowed angrily at the grenade flying up to kiss him. It blew up, causing the generator to blow up, and the combined combustion engulfed the forklift.

When the forklift exploded, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that all the Covenant were dead. To be sure, always make sure, Burke walked over and scanned their bodies through his shotgun's iron sights.

"Everyone form up on my position," Seven said and removed two bundles of sticks wrapped in canvas from a hard case on the other leg.

Burke and the two troopers showed up as he snapped the first tactical stretcher together and, with their help, he eased one of the two wounded troopers onto it. Then he expanded another stretcher for the sniper. Moments later, Seven and Burke lifted one of the stretchers up, followed by the upper deck trooper and PFC Schultz, who picked up the other.

Noble Team's Falcon was arriving on scene as Seven led the way into the bunker.