Pvt. Shadow's Story

Being as new as Private Shadow was, he knew little more about battle than the combat training. Two things that Shadow had picked up rather quickly were that Spartans were on the ship and the layout of the ship. "If anyone else survived, it would likely be a Spartan." Shadow had thought to himself. He began to walk to the Spartan center in the ship, because if any Spartans survived, they would head there. Now came Shadow's next big challenge, getting out of the barracks.

Shadow did what the combat training had told him to do, grab his AR and his magnum. After a entering the code to open the door, Shadow walked into the empty halls of the ship's barracks. Seeing things this empty was new to Shadow, seeing as only a couple of minutes ago, everyone on the ship was running to get to some place safe for the crash landing. After about 20 minutes Shadow had reached the Spartan center and began to lean against the wall that led to the Spartans' armor. He then began to doze.

"Hey look, a Spartan!" Shadow shouted when he saw Lt. Arclight. "Need any help there?" Shadow asked knowing that often enough, the only help that a Spartan accepts is another gun at their side. Shadow's face and left arm were covered in cuts and scratches that had been obviously treated. "You have any idea where we are or what exactly happened sir?" Shadow shot off quickly after his last question. Most marines would not likely have asked such questions. However, by the looks of things, most marines were dead.

Doc had resorted to climbing through ventilation shafts after some rubble had blocked his way. He heard voices past the din of a heavily armored spartan banging around in aluminum ventricles.
After hearing a faint creaking the tube dropped, promptly leaving him to fall between a Spartan and a Marine. He had landed on his feet, turned his hi-beams off, stepped forward, then turned to face them.
"Hi," the mic in his helmet transferred the words into the other Spartans communication systems if they where on the same channel,
"I'm K-500, but you can just call me Doc. If we can get out of here I'll be your combat medic."
He put his hands on his hips, trying to size up the two other soldiers. They seemed good enough to try not to get hit.

"Umm, K-500, I am just a marine." said Shadow when it looked like the Spartan was talking under his helmet. After a moment's pause, Shadow realized something. "Where is my helmet? Great, this is the fifth time on this ship that I lost my helmet." Shadow said just loud enough for the 2 Spartans to hear. After a couple of minutes of the clueless marine searching around, he found a marine helmet. "This will have to do." said Shadow out loud. Then he had another genius idea. He quickly checked his AR. 'Oh, good. Full magazine.' Shadow thought to himself.

Shadow looked over to Doc. "I'll get a medkit." Shadow said as he ran off to the small Spartan medical section. When he approached the room, the door had been blown clear out of the doorway. The 2 cots, because Spartans so rarely got major injuries, had become twisted pieces of metal. The cots' mattresses had been thrown across the room and ripped to shreds by the small amount of surgical knifes that scattered the room. After traversing the shards of metal that covered the room, Shadow found the 1 intact medkit. He then slowly made his way back out of the medical room, and ran back to the 2 Spartans. "I found a medkit!" Shadow said looking at K-500.

Doc took the med kit from the eager marine.
"Thanks kid, you might want to avert your eyes for the next part." He opened the med kit while walking over to the other Spartan. Time to get to work. He started by unrolling some bandage, the wrapping it around his wrist. He dabbed the end in a bit of pain killer, and set the bottle back in it's small slot. He then grabbed the shrapnel, yanked it out, then swiftly wrapped the bandage around the wound. "We'll be able to tell when it heals when it gets dirty enough to deteriorate, or gets burned off by something."
He stood eye to eye with his fellow spartan, holstering the kit to his own leg. "We might need some extra stuff on our little survival camp."

"Umm... do either of you Spartan's know what caused the crash landing?" Shadow asked hoping that the Spartans, being able to access even the most confidential files, would have been told why the crash landing happened. Shadow started to patrol while he waited for them to answer. All that was left in the room was scrap metal, scattered pieces of armor, weapons, and even spilled medkits. As Shadow continued to look around, he noticed there was few entrances or exits. There was the one he came in, the vents, and the one that the K-500 came in. Now, the once huge training room had become a small room with only enough space to fit around 3 Scorpion tanks.

"Who hasn't?" Shadow said. How he wasn't panicking at the moment surprised him more then it would anyone else. He was new to war, this was a 4 year dead enemy, and he was one of three survivors. Any other marine would have likely broke down, but Shadow was just sent on edge. Though this was obvious by his constant turning, checking every corner, aiming his AR at any movement that wasn't the 3. Shadow was keeping his cool, but was suddenly extremely alert. After a few moments Shadow spoke again. "So, other than the fact that every vent is a disaster waiting to happen, is there anything that I need to know about fighting the flood?"

Doc Released the tension in his shoulders, bringing his two submachine guns up to a comfortable firing position.
"Flood are parasitic, inhabit each others dead bodies, and always hunt in packs. Best to use rapid fire instead of semi-automatic."

He had heard of the floods attack on earth, he himself being stationed on Pollux-3 at the time.

"We move as a unit, trying to head to the hangar. A pelican should work."

"Let's avoid the barracks. I had to climb through piles of bodies there." Shadow said. In truth, the piles of bodies were in the rooms, but if the flood is real, then they will have to climb through a pile of lead and infected flesh. That would not be fun.

"Are you sure there will be a working Pelican that will be able to fit through whatever hole we can find? Pelicans aren't as small as a Mongoose." Shadow said to Doc. Thanks to the crash landing, the small group might not even find a hole large enough for them, not to mention a Pelican. This was the worst first assignment possible.

The worst alien creatures. The flood. Crashing somewhere on the way to Organon, his home world, wasn't good. All bio life from star base forward on is hostile! Most of those would probably be the flood. He had better make this. If he didn't, well, goodbye beautiful Talana. He'd be going to hell. "If we're going to get on a pelican, don't let me drive. I can't fly."

Oi.... That's the last time I let Natalie get me a drink.... Wait... Alex slowly sat up, holding his head. He looked around in a hazy daze, wondering just where the hell he was. He noticed the room seemed to be.... Crooked? What the hell did she put in that drink... Then he saw several bodies of his former squadmates laying in the barracks. Various poles and wreckage had either dismembered them, or just impaled them. He held in the urge to barf however, and quickly stood up. "Gotta figure out what happened.... Obviously the ship went down..." he searched for his helmet, quickly finding it thanks to the purpleish grin painted on it. He smiled as he looked at it, then put it on. He found his AR stashed under his bunk as per the usual, and he placed the five clips he had for it on his bandolier. He locked the bolt, then attached it to the magnetics on the back of his armor as he made his way through the debris. Weren't there SPARTANS aboard? If anyone survived this, it'd be a SPARTAN... He tried to remember which way to the SPARTAN Deployment area... He decided to just wing it. He walked down one of the various hallways, one of the few that was mostly intact. He noticed a distinct lack of bodies however... It unnerved him. Where was everyone?

He finally made it to the door to the SPARTAN deployment area. He slowly pried open the damaged door, cautiously entering with the flashlight on his AR on high beam. His light brushed past the group, and once he recognized the SPARTANS, he immediately lowered his weapon, and walked towards them. He stood at attention, and saluted, although he was still a little wobbly. "Sgt. Raine, reporting for duty SPARTANS. Any idea what the hell happened? And where all the bodies are? I'm assuming we crashed, but why?"

Shadow quickly shot into attention, just before saluting Raine. "Private Adion Volf Shadow, sir. We have a flood infestation, sir." Shadow said to Raine, before going back to attention. He remembered Raine coming down to the launch pod area and having to validate him, so that Raine could clean his pod. Back before the crash, Shadow worked mainly down by the launch pods as patrol and validation. A boring job, but a good one for rookies to do.

Doc turned to see the other marine, glad to see another person had made it through the crash. "Glad you came to join us Sergeant." He looked back to arclight after addressing the newly found soldier. "We really should move now. The hangar should be this way."

Arclight nodded to Raine as all four of them headed for the hangars. He introduced himself. "Lt. Arclight. I'll be your CO for the time being." He held out his hand to Raine. Surely him and Raine would get together quite fine. "Ok, men, the pelican's just around this corner. Go go go!"

Shadow Followed the rest of the group to the hangers. He walked into the room with the Pelican in it, after Lt. Arclight told him to, and spotted what seemed like a dream. A Pelican in near perfect condition staying in its spot, but not sliding due to the rooms slight slant. The exit doors were open and pointed to above the forest of the area where they landed. A baby could fly the Pelican out of this without complications. Thus Shadow said "I was not expecting things to go this well."

"Sometimes lady luck decides to actually give you the time of day Private."
He climbed into the co-pilot seat, making checks to see if it was still operational. With a buzz and a glow the system turned on, and they were set to go.
"Who's driving?"

"I can fly the Pelican, sir, but if the others can, they can likely fly far better than me, sir." Shadow said. It was one of the few things that he had learned from doing odd job patrols. At one time, he had to land a Pelican in a massive part of the Steel Gunfire because the pilot had parked it in the wrong place, and it had highly valuable materials that only the pilot and him were allowed near. Of course, being his first Pelican landing, Shadow ripped the landing gear off of the Pelican. Needless to say, he spent the next day in the commander's office listening to the whole speech about needing to go through flight school.