LORC Act 3 Pt 3

Note: This chapter is no longer fully correct to the story line, but relax, an update is on the way

Later...

Ryau and Naki had gone to see D'rok and he was extremely glad Ryau was back to normal. Now Ryau ran to the Pelican he had been assigned to, there was an explosion and the Dawn shook. Naki was close behind as he got to the hatch. He looked in and saw the Marine squad. Their Sargent caught his attention.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Ryau muttered.

It was the same Sargent that had been defending the motor pool in Crows nest. Naki heard what he had muttered and said in reply,

"What Rya-" She saw the Sargent. " I thought he died in the crash."

"Apparently he didn't." Ryau said taking a seat by the door.

The hatch closed and the Pelican took off out of the Foreword Unto Dawn.

Ryau gripped his Carbine as the Pelican weaved through the space battle heading down to the Ark. He looked out the small window to see another Pelican burst into flames.

"Thank God, I thought we might have been on that one." Ryau exclaimed.

Naki just nodded and seemed to relax. She obviously was relieved that they had survived. The Pelican continued down and it started to shake as they entered the atmosphere. After about half a minute the shaking stopped and the Pelican leveled out. The Marines next to Ryau and Naki cocked their weapons and shoved their helmets on. Ryau and Naki were part of the Recon team looking for a landing zone for the Foreword Unto Dawn. Ryau watched the Master Chief and Arbiter hop out of the other two Pelicans and move up the cliff side. A Sangheili Phantom touched down in the other valley. Ryau's Pelican climbed higher and he heard a Marine over the radio whisper, "That gun is going to tear the Dawn apart..."

Ryau just continued to stare out the back, he recognised the Silent Cartographer complex and then the large canyon where the Dawn was to land. He pointed over to it and said,

"Sargent, That seems like a suitable place for your Commander to land her ship."

"Nice call Squid-Face." the Sargent said turning to to Pilot. Ryau shook his head and thought,

"God- Five months and I'm already talking casually like a Sangheili."

The Sargent told the pilot to radio the landing zones location when a Banshee patrol came out of nowhere and opened fire on their Pelican. The Pelican shook violently as its engines erupted in flames. Ryau caught a glimpse of their sister Pelican crash high in the rocks before they crashed into the desert sands.

The Lights in the troop bay flickered red and sand blew into Ryau's mouth. He coughed and rose from the corner where he had been flung. He looked to where Naki had been and saw here pushed Rocket crates off her lap. He smiled faintly and she returned it, and then she mouthed,

"Get off your ass and get this stuff off of me"

Ryau mouthed back with a laugh, "alright and I'll carry your ass out of here."

Ryau stood up and grabbed his Carbine, he lifted it up over his shoulder and placed it on its magnetic holster. The deck of the Pelican was sloped from the crash and a strong wind blew inside. Ryau put his arm up to his mouth, blocking any more sand from getting inside. With his free hand, Ryau pushed the weapon crates off of Naki freeing her legs. The wind died down and they exited the bay. There were not any bodies around the Pelican so Ryau had assumed the Marines had survived. Sure enough, Ryau looked around the front of the Pelican and saw them sitting in front of a Forerunner door way.

"Son-of-a-bitch Sargent left us for dead." Ryau muttered.

"Ryau, for all we know he thought we were dead." Naki responded calmly.

"He hates us- why wouldn't he look for an opportunity to abandon us." Ryau took a breath and his shoulders slouched. "Well, I guess I shouldn't blame him... If you fight an enemy for thirty years and then they switch sides and fight for you- there would still be negative feelings."

"Now you understand what they're going through- but they will never understand what you went through." Naki said.

"I guess that's just going to be something I have to live with." Ryau said taking a second look up the hill.

He saw a Brute leading a group of Grunts advancing at the Marines position. Ryau pointed to a partly destroyed Warthog and Naki nodded. She ran over to it and Ryau grabbed a SPNKr. Naki hopped on to the turret and cocked the weapon, she sent a short radio message to Ryau,

"Ready when you are."

Ryau responded with a three second count-down. Once he hit zero, Naki pulled the triggers and fired on the unshielded Grunts. At the same time Ryau let out a rocket on the Brute Captain. The explosion from the rocket, combined with the Grunts methane tanks exploding, thanks to Naki's rain of bullets, blew the patrol to bits. Chunks of carbonized bone and flesh fell in a thirty foot radius from the blast zone. As the explosion echo faded away, a new sound filled the valley. The whine of an engine got louder as a flaming Longsword flew overhead. Over the radio the pilot fearfully yelled, "Thrusters are gone, I can't control her!"

He was cut off as it crashed on the other side of the dune. Ryau's first thought was to go help, but then he remembered how there were no survivors in the game.

"To Hell with the game-" Ryau said aloud.

Naki looked at him confused as he grabbed an Med-pack and hopped on a Mongoose. She hopped on the back as the Chief and Arbiter came out of the doors. Ryau was half way up the hill when two Prowlers flew by and headed to the crash site. Naki detached his SPNKr from his back. Ryau raced by, holding his head low behind the small wing shield, and Naki shielded herself with the SPNKr. Ryau took the Mongoose over a jump and landed in between a Brute and his Chopper. Naki looked up and un-holstered her Needler, she put an entire clip in to the Brute before it exploded.

Up ahead a group of Brutes were running to their Prowlers. Suddenly there was a sonic boom and a trio of drop-pods fell from the sky. Two of them fell into a depression. The third landed on top of Prowlers causing them to explode. Once the fire and smoke cleared, the drop-pods hatch blew open. As Ryau drove by Naki saw the ODST hop out and kick a part of the destroyed Prowlers. They came over the hill and saw the Longsword crash site. Its tail was burring and pieces of it were strewn all about. Ryau hit the brakes and hopped off. Through the crackle of the fire he heard a thumping coming from a rooftop hatch. A piece of the Longsword's tail had fallen over the hatch. Ryau pushed the piece off but the hatch was still jammed, the hatch opened downward but for some reason it would not open. Ryau kicked down at the door and it budged slightly.

"Move back from the hatch," Ryau called down.

He kicked again and the hatch and the door opened a crack. Smoke poured out and Ryau gave the final kick. The hatch broke off its hinges and smoke erupted out of the hole. An arm reached out and Ryau pulled the man up. Ryau tossed Naki the med-pack and lifted the Pilot in to his arms. The Pilot's helmet was cracked and a bone was sticking out of his other arm. Ryau carried the Pilot over to a rock overhang where Naki had set up a tarp, taken from the back of a Warthog. He set the Pilot down and said to Naki,

"He's got a broken leg."

Naki pulled out a Medical Scanner and held it over the Pilot. "He also has a mild concussion and three fractured ribs." She looked up. "You've got the most experience providing Human medical dressings."

Ryau looked back at her and then to the Warthog. "Alright, move the Hog and the Mongoose to shield us from any Covenant coming this way."

Naki stood up and moved the vehicles while Ryau went to work. He removed the Pilots chest plate and filled the chest cavity with Bio Foam. He wrapped up the arm with a bandage and fixed a splint around it.

"Ryau!" Naki yelled.

A Prowler roared up the hill. But then she saw the Chief driving it. Ryau saw one of the Marines had a red cross on her helmet.

"Medic!" Ryau called.

The Prowler slowed and the Medic hopped off and ran over. The Pilot moaned and pushed off his helmet.

"Thanks, for the rescue." The Pilot said offering his good hand. "I'm Captain Foss."

Ryau accepted the hand and gave him a firm handshake. "Ryau 'Cinotee"

The Medic ran around the Warthog and took one look over the bandages. "You did a good job. Where'd you learn to wrap a human?"

"Nowhere." Ryau replied.

Ryau passed the ODST's bringing one of their own wounded over to the makeshift camp. The Medic moved from Foss and went to work on removing a spike from the ODST's side. Ryau walked over to the Chief and Arbiter.

"Move up- we saw a pretty good landing zone over that hill, We'll catch up once the area is clear."

The Chief nodded and the ODST's hopped on to the skids. Naki handed them her SPNKr and backed away. The Prowler took off down the valley. Ryau and Naki did a perimeter search and found the area secure for the moment. They waited a little longer for a squat of Marines to arrive to keep the area covered. Ryau and Naki took the Warthog and drove down the valley. As they came around the corner they almost ran right into a Wrath. Ryau threw it into reverse and floored the pedal. Naki fired the turret, but it was no use. The Tanks armor was too thick and the bullets bounced off. Ryau and Naki bailed out of the Hog and took off towards a door embedded in the cliff. The Wrath fired and destroyed the Warthog. As they approached the door it chimed open just in time and they ran inside. The door shut behind them and locked. Ryau leaned forward to catch his breath.

"I guess... we're... not leaving... they way we came in."

Naki just leaned against a wall and laughed. In front of them was another door, it chimed open and a blast of cold air rushed in. Ryau lifted his Carbine and entered the next room. There was a long hallway going off in to the darkness, the opposite wall was lined with open windows. There was a roar of rushing water echoing along the corridor. Ryau stepped over to the windows and looked out. The space was large and dark, the cool breeze blew in from bellow and the bottom of the cavern was obscured with mist.

"That's deep." Ryau commented.

"My guess is that its the water from the waterfall flowing underneath this area to be sent up again later." Naki replied.

They continued to walk along the hall way and eventually they came to another room. They looked down and saw a group of Warthogs and Scorpion tanks waiting on the other side of the chasm. Almost directly across from Ryau, they saw the Chief and Arbiter.

"Wow, we made good time." Ryau said to noone in particular.

The Forerunner bridge flickered into existence and the UNSC continued through the wall. A pair of Sentinels flew by Ryau just stopping with enough time to scan him. The door in front of him opened and they almost collided with the Arbiter and Master Chief. Guilty Spark hovered infront of the door and it opened. As the Chief rushed out, a Scarab leg landed right infront of him. Ryau looked down the ridge and saw the line of tanks rolling out of the cave. The Scarab marched down the hill not paying any attention to the small group. A Gauss Warthog drove up being chased by a Ghost. The Ghost opened fire and killed the Hog's gunner. The driver quickly hopped out and mounted the turret. He fired and blew the Ghost apart. The Chief ran up to the Hog and got in the drivers seat, while the Arbiter commandeered another Ghost that was coming from behind. Ryau and Naki sid down the cliff face as a loud rumbling sound came from above. They looked up to see a pair of Pelicans fly over, a few yards above their heads. The sound was deafening. One was drifting towards the cliff face, fire sprouting from the crew bay. The other exploded as a Covenant Seraph strafed the craft. The first Pelican laced across the first terrace then slammed straight into the cliff. The Pelican, surprisingly, did not explode. Instead it jerked downwards violently. Still moving fairly quickly, it almost plunged straight down against the cliff. Ryau and Naki watched it plunge in uncertainty until it slipped out of sight into an opening at the base of the cliff. A large bang rang out signifying its final impact. As Ryau and Naki reached the base of their cliff they looked at each other and then towards the hole.

"We need to check that out," Ryau said. "You still have that Med-Pack?"

"Yes I do." Naki responded

"Okay let's go."

Ryau and Naki jogged towards the opposite cliff and stopped at the opening the ill fated Pelican had entered. Smoke billowed from the opening, upon quick inspection, Ryau saw that the opening was part of a tunnel. Without another second, Ryau started to move down the tunnel. Naki, being unsure at first, soon followed at Ryau's side. After a little distance, the pair came up on a large metallic object. It was hard to distinguish at first, but as they edged closer it was discovered to be the left wing of the Pelican. It was badly damaged and mangled by itself. Naki, who was more concerned for the safety of both herself and Ryau, notice a faint orange flicker of light against the wall of the tunnel. Naki put a hand on Ryau's shoulder to get his attention, which was currently on a piece of wing. Once Ryau had looked up to see what was wrong, Naki pointed down the tunnel.

"Look-" Naki said.

Ryau quickly stood up, and looked back at Naki. "Stay close." He said just before starting down the tunnel. As Ryau led Naki deeper into the tunnel, the tunnel angled slightly to the right, then opened up into a large cavern. Inside the cavern, half way across, sat the burning Pelican.

"Sir! me ok! sir?." It was a Grunt, unseen but heard.

Ryau pulled his Carbine out ans moved towards the crash. Naki also pulled out her Needler but stayed where she was. The crew bay of the Pelican was slightly open. however, there fruitlessly trying to open the crew bay, was the Grunt

"Hey, you there!" Ryau shouted aiming his rifle at the Grunts head, "Are you Loyalist or Separatist?"

"me? Me- Me not sure now" the Grunt explained, unhelpful to the situation.

"Who are you looking for?" Ryau said, pulling the grunt away.

"Please, me need to-" the grunt was interrupted as the crew door was violently busted open from the inside.

Ryau jumped back and aimed the Carbine to the hatch. Screaming could be heard from the Pelican. Quickly, a tall dark armored Sangheili rushes out from the smokey crew bay. He was caring an injured pilot. The Sangheili walked by Ryau and Naki. Once past them, he stopped and then kneeled to the floor. He set the injured pilot down and the pilot was screaming very loudly in pain. The Sangheili shook his head and he looked over the human.

Then, in a fluent movement, he covered the humans mouth, and drew a magnum from his side. He put the magnum against the bottom of the humans head and pulled the trigger. The human screamed no longer, and his body laid limp on the ground.

A few moments after that Ryau just stood there trying to comprehend what he had just seen. Then just like someone had flipped a switch, Ryau ran up to the Sangheili and punched him in the side of the head.

"You son of a-"

The Sangheili fell over, only to quickly recover and tackle Ryau to the ground. Ryau, landed on his back, and put his hands up to defend against the Sangheili on top of him. He is shocked to see a familliar face.

"D'rok?"

"Ryau? what the hell are you doing here?"

"Trying to find that Pelican- Why the hell did you just shoot that man? We have medical supplies!"

"He was going to die."

"How do you know he would?"

"I have a lot of experience with humans and injury" D`rok stood up, getting off of Ryau.

"Well so do I."

"I knew... it is better to end suffering than to try to heal it"

"Humans will need every soul they can when this war is over D'rok, their numbers are-"

"Do not tell me about their numbers, that is already well known to me." D'rok cut Ryau off.

"The injuries he has sustained would have taken years, mabye even decades to heal. It would have been very painful as well."

"Well..." Ryau just gave up the argument finding no way to continue his side.

D`rok went back to the dead human and knelt back down at the corpse's side.

D`rok then lowered his head and began to speak silently with his eyes closed.

It looked like D`rok was...praying. Ryau was confused, He had never seen a Sangheili pray like that before, and even more so, the only religion he had heard of was the worship of the Forerunners which was proven false now. Ryau just watched as D'rok finished and stood up, finally opened his eyes and with both fingers, closed the fallen pilot's eyes.

"You are in a better place now my child" D`rok whispered

Naki, who still had a hold of the Grunt, was shocked to hear a female voice as her arm was pulled.

"Let him go" the voice commanded.

Naki, understanding that this voice belonged to someone D'rok knew, let the Grunt go. "Okay." she said.

The female moved around to face Naki. Naki's gaze was met by a surprisingly soft and young face. That face however, had a certain "hardness" to it as it stared coldly at Naki.

"Hello..." Naki said a little nervously.

A hand pushes the female slightly,

"Its okay Sar, calm down" a male voice that Naki recognized vaguely, it was K'an

"Uhh, hello Sar, K'an." Naki said again.

Sar turned and walked over to D'rok

K'an stayed next to Naki

"That was pleasant." K'an announced.

"Yes, that was..."

"My question is: where the hell are we?"

"Well you're in a cave on the Ark. At the moment there is a battle with a Scarab going on above us. Actually..." Naki turned over to Ryau's direction. "Ryau we need to get back to the surface!"

"What? Oh yeah-" Ryau replied. "Well D'rok, we'll see you later, just follow your flaming debree for the way out."

"Sir!" another SpecOps Sangheili called out, Ryau recognized this one: Sig

Sig was standing next to a badly damaged Warthog.

"Hello Sig." Ryau said.

"Well- the hog is done for... ahh what a great fucking day!" D`rok stated, the vulgarity took Ryau completely by surprise. It seemed, as well, that everyone was shocked except for K'an

"Woah..." was all Ryau said.

D`rok stood up and cleared his throat, as if to try to hide something.

He quickly made it over to the Warthog and inspected it.

"Well that sucks... its completely totaled! The only part that would work is the...gun"

D`rok took his hands from his lower mandibles and climbed up onto the Warthog. For a few seconds he examined the turrent- fiddling with it several times.

This made Ryau curious.

"D`rok, what are you-" Ryau started to ask but was interrupted, once again, as D`rok loudly ripped the Chaingun from it's fixed base.

D`rok, now with a big smirk, hopped off of the back of the Warthog.

"Hey Ryau? Need any support?" D`rok asked, he was as happy as a little kid on Christmas morning.

"SIR! Can me have next!" the Grunt, Gegoy asked D`rok eagerly. If Ryau remembered correctly, Gegoy had a kind of fetish for heavy weapons.

"As you can see, what ever we had to do is erased from our 'shopping list'" D`rok joked, this surprised Naki and Ryau both once again.

"Well umm... we should get to the surface before the battle is over, right?" Ryau said.

"I'll follow you Ryau. I'm tired of leading everything" D'rok said with a heavy sigh.

"Um alright." Ryau said nervously. "This way."

Ryau lead the group out of the tunnel and to the surface battle where the UNSC were just finishing off the Scarab. Ryau's radio came back on and they heard Rtas say, "Excellent job Spartan, I saw that explosion from orbit."

"Uhh, D'rok, go up and help the Marines capture that structure." Ryau said pointing to the Silent Cartographer.

"Alright" D`rok started to lead his team towards the Silent Cartographer.

Ryau noticed a pair of Banshees flying towards D`roks team from their left flank.

"D'rok, two Banshees coming from your left!" Ryau said over the radio.

"Thanks!" D`rok responded through the com.

The two Banshees had picked the wrong group to mess with. Between Gegoy's Fuel Rod cannon and D`rok's Warthog turret they quickly were taken out. Ryau saw an empty Wraith tank and then opportunity. The Marines had not yet advanced up the ramps and there were still plenty of Covenant holding their position up there. Ryau hopped in the drivers seat and launched a salvo at the most occupied landing. Even at that extreme distance Ryau saw body-parts being launched into the air. Ryau repeated that with the other two landings, getting mixed results. Ryau eventually drove up to the base of the ramp and got out. The fight to reach the top had already begun, but D'rok and his group were nowhere to be found. As Ryau and Naki ran up to the first landing, they saw that the Marines and a few Sangheili had cornered the remaining Brutes. So they headed to the second landing. It was covered in blood and scorches, obviously where he had fired. A marine ran up next to him and was caught in the shoulder by a Beam Rifle. Ryau pulled him to the side and tossed a Plasma grenade into the sniper nest. He heard a satisfying shriek from a Jackal before it was silenced by the explosion. Naki provided cover fire and tossed a few of her own grenades over the barricade. More Sangheili and Marines came up and assisted only problem was that the ramp walls closed in and created a bottle neck, keeping them trapped on the second landing. The Arbiter along with the Chief, showed up from behind. One Marine had a long range radio and broadcasts,

"Kilo two three, we are pinned down by Covenant snipers on the third landing, requesting air support. Over."

A moment later the Marine gave a thumbs up and the whine of an approaching Pelican was head above the gun fire. Kilo 2-3 flew overhead and released a salvo of rockets at the sniper nest. The Marines rushed up the ramp and fired at any survivors. Once the top was secured the Pelican came back around and set down for a landing. The Marines rushed any wounded aboard and got on to be taken to other areas of fighting. Separatist Phantoms also came around and the Sangheili did the same. Ryau and Naki gathered what ammo they could, and sat against a wall.

"Well..." Naki muttered

"Yeah." Ryau said.