Halo Aftermath: Seal of Solomon Ch. 4 (revised)

Chapter 4

A crack of light broke through the thick haze forcing Dillan to recoil. The sounds of plasma shots made him snap to attention. His eyes wide, he saw a massive structure with a few open fields around it. The structure regularly sent out a pulse, possibly a signal device. What was going on, where…the sounds of an incoming Covenant drop ship disturbed his thoughts. He’d have to figure it out later, but for now it’s time to work.
Dillan headed for the structure, a ramp to his left went to the top floor where he found a mass of weapons just lying there. How convenient he though as he picked up the only M6D pistol, though he always wanted to dual wield them but could never find a second one. Fortunately there was also a rocket launcher that he quickly attached to his back. What’s a demo’s expert without the demo?
The sounds of the drop ships were now fading; a quick glance at the perfect blue sky confirmed this. They were leaving, probably a lot lighter now. He took up a position guarding the ramp he came up, so far nothing was moving. A red dot started blinking on his motion tracker, then another, and another. Probably Grunts. No point to send an extermination squad for one lone Spartan, the thought warmed him a little.
The sounds of hurried feet and huffing echoed up from the ramp on his left. Dillan paused, now taking aim at the bottom of the ramp. It had been far too long since he had to use a precision weapon, and he was already missing his rocket launcher. The hapless Grunt turned the corner catching three well placed bullets in the chest. This in turn caused its methane tank to explode sending the three remaining Grunts back down the ramp. They always come in groups of four, no more no less. He sprinted to the ledge overlooking the ramp. He aimed carefully between the waving arms and plasma pistols. Dillan squeezed the trigger only to be filled with an odd sense of joy and happiness.
As the bullet he fired passed through the Grunts skull, an odd amount of brightly colored confetti shot outwards and the cheers of children could be heard. This, he thought, surely had to be the happiest place in all the cosmos. He ran down the ramp expertly emptying his pistol into Grunts, his accuracy fueled by mass amounts of confetti and rampant cheers.
This joyous feeling continued until it was interrupted by a strange deep voice.
“Five enemies remaining.”
As the voice finished, five red triangles appeared on his HUD. He moved quickly to each point, and with each kill the voice counted down. Surely this was cheating but when it came down to the last Grunt Dillan hesitated. He lined up his sights to see the confetti and hear the cheers one last time, but couldn’t pull the trigger. The Grunt looked at him as he turned and stood there.
“Dillan…”
He watched the Grunt carefully. It began to take off its respirator, the leech like mouth could have remained hidden.
The round orifice mouthed “Dillan,“ though the voice sounded familiar. He stood there too puzzled to move on.
“Wake up! Dillan!”
Dillan felt a sharp pain course through his right arm as he sat up in the darkness. His hands clutched a fistful of sand. He cowered as a bright light panned across his visor.
“You sleep like a rock, and learn to jump. If you want some fireworks, fine. But save yourself the cost of landing on your head. That’s damaged enough.”
The silver lining of Pablo’s armor came into focus between his fingers.
“Do you mind,” he groaned, “I was having such a wonderful dream.”
Well tell me later,” Pablo said, obviously annoyed. “Nothing’s on tracker, all the doors are locked, and its bloody dark in here…where ever that is…”
“We’re supposed to be rendezvousing with Luna inside the structure. Our intelligence reports massive Covenant activity both inside and out. Sonar mapped out the structure and it looks like a buried control room.”
“So you think we’ve done it?” Pablo’s excitement rose. “Zero-seven is the only ring we haven’t found, let alone destroy.”
Dillan stood up, but quickly fell down the sand dune he discovered was under him. He stood again stretching his arms, “We’ll see.” He flicked on his helmet lights, and pointed to the sand trickling through the ceiling “Judging by the structure it looks pretty beat up. Anyway, let’s get on. I’ve got enough with me to put matching holes in these doors.”
“Only one problem,” Pablo said pointing to the nearest wall. “All the doors are sideways.”
Dillan laughed, “And you tell me to wake-” He stared at the wall where a door should be but the beginning of the frame was two feet above his head. Dillan slowly walked over to Pablo who was busy examining the tickling sand. He cocked his fist back. Loosing it, the blow landed squarely on Pablo’s shoulder. The resulting brawl told Dillan that he wasn’t asleep anymore, and that that door really was sideways. Sure there were better ways to figure it out, but this was much more fun.