The group rushed over to the lightning victim, who was lying, slight crispy, but still remarkably intact on the floor where he had been flung back by the discharge.
“Urrghhgh...” he moaned. “That. Hurt.”
“I’m not surprised...” the gruff Spartan said. “Now pick yourself up soldier. We have a battle to fight. We won’t have been the only people to see that flash, whoever is the otherside of the ridge will undoubtably be charging up there as we speak” He turned round.
“GET BACK TO YOUR POSITIONS” he shouted. “We charge on 3!”
The group scurried back to their previous places; this was not a man you wanted to disobey. They flew over the ridge to face... nobody. The signs of fighting were obvious. Blackened crisped grass surrounded small holes where grenades had gone off. There were overcharged plasma pistol burns on the sides of rocks, and various colours of blood were splattered around. The bizarre thing though, was that there were no bodies. Anywhere. Not even any bits of bodies. Aside from the vegetation, there was no biomass left in the line of sight.
“I am impressed with the cleaning service on this planet...If only my wife was this efficient.” a man muttered dryly. A couple of feminine figures shot him a dirty look.
The gruff Spartan was confused, but he knew that the most important role of an officer was to make a decision. “Right. Well this was unexpected. We go this way” - he pointed towards the other side where an identical building to the first one stood.
A substantial trek later they arrived at the building, which appeared to be covered in some kind of orangey material of some sort in places. The group carefully stepped around it. Upon reaching the door they found it locked, apparently needing some terminal access to enter.
“Well that’s it. We’re stuffed” a pessimistic marine said. “We’re stranded here, in an unknown location with a crashed ship and surrounded by mutinous covenant and a giant Hoover of body parts. The only shelter is a couple of hours hike back, and night is about to fall. To put icing on the crap cake that is this trip, I’ve just stepped in this orange goo.”
“uh, actually, I took the liberty of taking the ship’s AI as we fled the ship” a petite woman said, nervously stepping forward, holding a chip. “If I can plug it into this terminal, she should be able to infiltrate the software and open the door” She cleared some of the goo from the terminal top, and plugged in the chip. A naked blue lady appeared as a hologram on the terminal. “Cortana, can you open this door?”
“Can a Sangheili Major terrify a grunt?” she replied tersely. “Of course I can.” Her shape changed into a blue orb, but they could hear her muttering. “hmm. This is interesting, it’s almost like there’s someone else in the system...Nevermind, got it.” The door slid open. Cortana reappeared, a smug look on her face. “57% functions intact facing forerunner codex lock. Not bad if I do say so myself”
Suddenly her eyes popped open, “Arrghhhh! What was that?!” She started flickering, “ARGHHH!!”
“Cortana! Are you ok? What’s wrong?” A concerned voice cried out.
“I.. I don’t know! It’s almost like something is attacking and infiltrating my systems. ARGHHHHH” The group was helpless to watch as the hologram figure was thrown around. The terminal starting sparking.
“RUN! Go through the door quickly! I can’t hold on much longer” she cried out. The group ran throw, just she screamed out piercingly. The terminal sparked and the chip blew. Then the door closed behind them into blackness.
Mario was Cortana. A Vanilla Townie.