Closed Doors: The Begining

________________The Beginning________________

First Lieutenant Mitchell O'Connell stood in a large hallway. Well, large was an understatement. This hall was huge. A D77H Pelican could fly through it and still have room. His ODST squad stood behind him, sweeping the walls' various holes for covenant. They stood before a fork in the road, both led out onto open air bridges, edged with snow. O'Connell pulled out his binoculars and looked down one.
"I can't see a damn thing past the flurries crossing the bridges," He spoke calmly. "Looks like we're gonna have to spli' up."
"Aw man, they didn't say anything about that," moaned Private E-2 Kevin Burks. "I hate splitting up."
"Well then private, it'll be good practice for you," replied Second Lieutenant Sasha Forest. Mitchell listened to her American accent as she spoke. "Or you could just sit here wile we go and kill covies. Hope none of them come after you."
"Oh c'mon, sir, quit trying to scare me!" Kevin replied.
"Quit your bitchin'," Mitchell replied, his Irish accented voice stressing the last word. "I go' enough complaints." Mitchell then pointed to Sasha and three other ODSTs. "You t'ree will take the left with Sasha. The rest of you follow me."
The ODSTs nodded and Sasha ran into the left's storm. His ODSTs, which consisted of Burks, Sergeants Mike Reese and Frederick Kruger, looked at him. He glanced over their weapons.
Burks held an M7s, the suppressed SMG issued to all ODSTs. He had a SRCC-9 on his back and a holstered M6 Pistol. Mitchell turned to Mike.
Mike, like most sergeants, held a M90 Shotgun, and on his back was a MA5K Assault Rifle. He too, had an M6, which had a silencer attached to it.
Fred hefted a rocket launcher on his back. He held Two M7 SMGs and another M6. "Let's move," Mitchell said, and they turned and ran into the cold.

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        Goosebumps ran up Sasha's spine when they left the hallway onto the bridge even though she wore a fleece and fur ODST coat. It went down to her hips, but thicker armor and pants protected her legs from the cold. After ten feet from the exit, the flurries had completely engulfed her vision except for about ten meters of the bridge in front of her.
Corporal Lance Greggs, Private First-Class Evan Rhone, and Sergeant Guy McKee followed her into the white abyss. Whenever she glanced back to see if they still followed her, All she could see was their blue tinted visors, and a faint outline of them, since the white armor clad ODSTs were almost the exact color of the background.
Suddenly, the snow flurries cleared and she could see clearly across the bridge. The sun shined down on the bridge, partially covered by the mountain side's shadow. She skidded to a halt at what she saw at the other end and quickly raised her fist, halting the three others.
Twenty-two grunts stood guard out side a large door, with two plasma turrets on either side. A red armored elite trudged back and forth, watching the snow flurried part of the bridge.

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Mitchell stepped over the dead bodies of several grunts. They found them outside a very large door, as if they had been protecting it. He looked back at the three ODSTs that had followed him here.
"Looks like our Spartan came t'rough here," He said, glancing to the opened door. "And then went in." He pointed inside the hall the doors led to.
"Well we'll just have to go in after him, then," Said Mike. "And save his ass."
Mitchell chuckled. "Never fough' aroun' a Spartan before? Most likely we'll be t'e ones who need our asses saved."
"Whatever. Let's go!" Mike urged Mitchell.
"Sasha, we're going in," Mitchell said over the com. "Looks like our Spartan wen' t'is way."

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"Looks like our Spartan wen' t'is way," Mitchell's voice came over the com.
"Roger that Mitch," Sasha replied.
They were still sitting on the bridge, watching the elite pace. Lance had leveled his sniper with the elite's head and tracked him back and forth. Sasha waved her hand forward slightly and two rounds landed in the elite's face, dropping him to the floor. The grunts turned and scattered as assault rifle fire exploded from the flurry. One somehow managed to get on a plasma turret and start to fire, but was killed by Lance. The grunt's finger still pulled the trigger, but it had accidentally turned it to fire at its allies. The remaining grunts dove for cover, but were mowed down by the now approaching ODSTs.
Sasha ran up to the control panel next to the door. A video screen appeared and a gold elite stared her in the face.
"Human!" it screamed just before Sasha punched the panel. The video had disappeared, but audio was still rolling. "Send out the wraith and a platoon of Kig Yar!"
Sasha motioned for the ODSTs to throw grapples up to the ledge above the doors and climb. They shot grapples and got on the ledge just as the doors were opening.
Several jackals rushed out and glanced around. Lance sighted one but Sasha pushed his gun down. They got down into the snow and waited. Slowly, the hulking purple form of a wraith came into view. Guy leveled his Spartan Laser with the Wraith's power cell in the back. A small red dot appeared before the laser shot through the cell, exploding the wraith and throwing three jackals off the bride, knocking down the rest.
Sasha open fired on the remaining Jackals as she quickly slid down the rope. The others followed, doing the same. The doors had started to close when they landed on the ground, so they unclipped and ran inside. The doors shut and locked, encasing them in total darkness.

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Mitchell and his ODSTs moved through the hallways, trying to find something similar to a holding cell. They had been following a trail of carnage since they had entered.
"Man, Spartans licked these covies," Fred stated. Blood had been splattered on the walls and all over the floor. The occasional foot prints left by the Spartan let them track him easily. They marched on until they came to a large room, absolutely littered with covenant blood and destroyed pillars and various machines.
Mitchell picked up a inactivated trip mine. He looked up at the next doorway to see a grunt turn the corner. It hummed a tune, or what sounded like one to the ODSTs, in its dog like language. It stopped, frozen in fear, when it saw the ODSTs in the room. Mitchell locked eyes with it for a few seconds. It started to back out, but Mike shot it's legs out. It muttered a whine and started crawling away. Mitch ran to it then grabbed the grunt by the methane tank.
"Alright, You know I can understand you and you can understand me, so tell me this, where is the Demon?" Mitchell held it up against the wall and pointed a pistol at its tank.
"Please don't kill me! I don't know! The demon disappeared from our radar! Oh god, don't kill me!" the grunt screamed. Mitchell flipped the safety off on his pistol.
"Go join your friends in hell." A silenced pistol shot sounded and the grunt went limp. Mitchell dropped the body and looked at his squad. "Let's move it."

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        Sasha flipped on her visor and turned around to face the hallway. The orange lines that outlined edges of objects ran away from them, into further abyss. She glanced at the three ODSTs. They were outlined in green and stood, guns leveled. Sasha signaled for them to press on. For ten minutes, they walked on, turning down hallways, ad occasionally crossing paths with covenant. They had found no trace of any Spartan in the vicinity of them.
"Jeez, you'd think this place would be covered in carnage," Lance said. "Did he even go in here?"
"Mitch and his squad found a ton of dead grunts before they entered. So the Spartan must not have come this way," Sasha replied to him.
"Great. So when do we get to see some more action?" Kevin asked. Sasha stepped out onto a large platform over looking the digging of several covenant. Opposite of them, four tags appeared on a smaller walkway. The tags were from their companions.
"Mitch! Glad to see you're alive," Sasha spoke into the com.

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"... you're alive," Mitch heard Sasha say as he noticed their tags.
"Good to be alive. So you guys find anything?" Mitch replied.
"Nope," Sasha aid. "Not a single trace of the Spartan."
"We found a grunt… Wait, what's that IFF tag way out t'ere?" Mitchell motioned to a pile of rocks where an IFF tag appeared. "It matches our Spartan's." Mitchell glanced around the kilometer wide pit that the covenant was digging in. "No threats, just the harmless things that you just want to hug." The ODSTs started laughing at the last comment.
Mitchell hooked a rope to the railing and descended to the floor, quickly followed by the others. They ran for the rock pile, keeping an eye out for unfriendly forces. When they reached the IFF tag location, a new name appeared on Mitchell's visor. On top of his list, SPARTAN-041 popped up and a green light shone next to it.
Suddenly, the rock pile shifted and out stepped the Spartan, clad in MJORLNIR Mark VI armor. She looked at Mitchell.
"ODSTs sent in for a Spartan?" the Spartan grumbled. "Suicide if you ask me."
"Hey, we made it here," Mitchell replied. "Now let's go, we haven' much time before they figure out where we went."

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Mitchell and the Spartan ran down a hall. Their escape had gone to hell faster then they thought it would. The squad had been split up, and they all raced for the door the Spartan had entered.
Plasma just missed Mitchell as he rounded a corner. They ran for the next hall before the three elites in pursuit caught up.
"Sasha! Who's still with you?" Mitchell hollered as he ran around the next corner.
"I've got Kevin, Mike, and Fred. Lance and McKee got separated from us; they'll be arriving at the exit in three minutes!" Sasha replied hurriedly. "We'll be there in two!
"Roger," Mitchell said. Mitchell and the Spartan entered the last hallway, only to find three banshees patrolling the skies around the opened exit. Mitchell and the Spartan got to either side of the door. The elites who had been chasing them were no longer following them since they got them lost. About a minute later, Sasha and her team ran up.
"T'ree Banshees are blockin' the exit. I called in a Pelican to come pick us up, but its ETA is ten minutes," Mitchell said. "McKee has the laser, and Fred's got the rocket launcher. Fred, shoot down the banshees!"
Fred took a knee slightly out of the wall's cover; he locked onto one banshee and fired. The missile spiraled and crashed into the side of the craft, sending it burning to the ground below. The second, in an attempt to avoid the debris from the first, scraped its wing stubs on the bridge, causing it to lose its engines and join its friend below. The third exploded as a red beam hit it.
Two ODSTs dropped from above the door on ropes. They hit the ground running after Mitchell and the others. They crossed the span before the flurry of snow blowing off the mountain side as reinforcements arrived for the covenant. Mitchell spun for a moment and fired his SMG, catching a few unshielded grunts and jackals, dropping them to the ground. He spun and continued into the wall of snow.
Even though they had made it into the flurry, they continued to run, for three more banshees were flying around now. One nearly hit the bridge, but pulled up before it did. Mitchell kept running, he held his gun out in one hand, glancing back to see if the enemy was close.
A banshee almost hit Sasha who rolled out of the way before it crashed on the bridge and slid off the edge. The pilot recovered control of the craft and climbed up to the other two.
Mitchell saw his team make it inside the large halls they had been in before. Mitchell was still twenty meters from the entrance. He looked back and saw a faint red figure start to emerge. He gave it no second thought. He turned and started running like hell was at his heels, and if the covenant found him, it would be. He noticed two of the banshees circle and start flying for the entrance, but they flew at the spot in front of it from either side of the door.
For every step he took, his team urged him on more. The banshees flew faster, and it looked as though he wasn't going to make it. At the last second, when the banshees reached the edges of the bridge and he was three steps from safety, he dove for the entrance. He was sent in a few more meters because of the two banshees' crash explosion. He skidded to a halt and picked himself up off the cold metallic floor.
"Well get a move on! We're being chased if you forgot!" he yelled at them. And they started running again, to the hanger, where the pelican was waiting. The covenant, had finally managed to get in the halls and now unleashed fire from their plasma weapons. The Spartan turned, while running, and pointed a pistol and shot off an entire clip, nailing every shot in a jackal or grunt skull. Mitchell could see the hanger doors up ahead.
"Pelican Delta – zero six five, prime you engines, we are coming in hot!" Mitchell nearly screamed at the pilot.
"Roger," came the reply and a few muffled words came through that Mitchell didn't understand. Mitchell and the team ran through the doors to the hanger.
"Get down!" Mitchell yelled when he saw the co-pilot manning the .50 cal machine gun on the back of the pelican. His team instinctively got to the lowest point, which was the eight foot drop to the hanger floor in front of them. They hit the floor hard. They rose as the gunner began to fire at the now entering covenant.
Avoiding the bullets, Mitchell climbed onto the pelican after his team got on. The pilot took off immediately and they blasted out of the hanger, safe from the enemy's fire.

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Mitchell sat in the mess hall of the Prowler Kenny Rodgers. He was sitting by the window looking out into space. A damn near miracle we made it out of that, he thought.

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        Mitchell stood overlooking a fiery hellhole. Although they had beaten back the covenant, they glassed the planet from space. Mitchell sighed as he watched the once beautiful fields and forest burn to the ground as the plasma rained down.
        "Sad isn't it?" Sasha said. "All that effort for what? Nothing! We should have beaten them out of space before hitting the ground side fighting hard!" She shook her head.
        Mitchell continued to stand, watching, is heart slowly sinking as the real damage of the covenant was setting in. They glassed plants to remove a human 'infestation'. It was going on a hundred planets they had destroyed. He looked up, closer to the edge of the world, to see a small patch of green, not yet extinguished. It gave him a strange sense of hope.
        Suddenly he turned around and faced his team. "Well men, looks like we're going to have to take the fight to them."