Halo_ Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe - Eric Nylund [60]
“Sir, I can’t just leave you . . .”
“They’re all going to arrive, rook, and I’m going to blow the Shiva up the moment all the bastards show up.” Gage held up a control pad that would let him wirelessly detonate the nuclear device. “Years ago, I told my father it was ‘just dirt.’ But it’s not dirt. It’s where we live. It our dirt, dammit. And more importantly, it’s about who’s standing on that dirt. Those children. Your family. Your friends. And those freaks are going to pay for every piece of dirt they’ve taken from us.”
“We can still get you out of here . . .”
“No. I’m a dead man, you know it. I’m not going to waste more Marines.”
“And your friends coming this way?”
“They’re going to die helping protect the dirt, rookie. They’re going to die doing something good.” He smiled. “If they’d stayed back in the city to form up with you guys instead of running out here for the gold, they wouldn’t have a problem, would they? They chose this path. Promise me something, rook?”
“Anything.”
“You’ll fight the Covenant all the way. Even if they land on Earth. You’ll fight them even if you have to throw rocks at them.”
“I will, sir.”
“Then go now!” He waved the arming device for the Shiva around. “Or I’ll set this damn thing off with you still dallying around here.”
The rookie got up, looked around, back at the man on the ground one last time, and then ran. He shed his gear as he did so. Everything but the BR55 in his hands.
He ran uphill, not looking back, his visor open and his breath loud in the helmet. He leaped over rocks, gaining height, until he finally spotted the cleft of rock that would let him cut over the ridge to the other side of the mountain, back toward the city that was base camp for this operation.
He paused, looking back down the direction he’d come, catching his breath in long gasping pants.
Boot camp was just weeks ago. He was relieved to find out he still had that kind of sprint in him.
He could see the developing battlefield far below, in the scrub of the foothills. Grunts in the hundreds poured toward the downed Pelican. They’d come around the far side of the mountain, as Gage had predicted. They were like locusts swarming across the grass, bumbling along due to the large methane tanks on their backs.
And thundering overhead, flaring out toward the scene: a Pelican. It touched down, and three figures stepped out.
They did not rush to help Gage, but instead started rooting through the ruins of the other Pelican.
The Marine did not wait to see what was coming next. He ran through the cleft, barely glancing up at overhangs, and then slid down the other side.
Loose rock tumbled, and he surfed down the shale and dirt.
A bone-thrumming thump shook the entire mountain, and a steady roar filled the air. By the time the rookie got to the bottom, a massive mushroom cloud could be seen over the tip of the mountaintop.
It was still rising when a Pelican flew around a nearby hill, coming down to kiss the dirt long enough for the rookie to leap in.
“What the hell happened over there?” the pilot asked.
The rookie shook his head. “Long story.”
Long, indeed.
He was still a bit shaken by the entire thing.
The Pelican shook and bounced. “The civilians have all been evacuated,” the copilot told the rookie, who stood behind them looking out the window. “We’re taking them back to Earth with us.”
“Earth?” He was surprised.
“The Covenant just attacked Reach,” the pilot reported. “We’re falling back to Mother Earth.”
The rookie looked out