Douglas helplessly watched as Alice’s pod span out of control, and then watched her jump out. He hoped she would be okay. From where he was at, he couldn’t see Jerome’s pod, but he hoped they were doing good to. Right now though, he had to worry about himself. The front thrusters slowed him down. As he came into optimal range, the parachute popped out, and he was slowed even more, but it would still be a hard landing. It looked like he was headed for a small mountain range.
Nothing big, just high enough for a tad bit of snow. Overall, it wasn’t very high. Still, he felt uncomfortable landing on a mountain with this thing. The windows were covered in the red flame that surrounded the life boat. The mountain grew and grew until it took over the entire window, and the side clipped a mountain to the right. That could be good; it slowed him down even more. He smashed into the next mountain, and he was thrown across the lifeboat.
He grinded to a stop. He looked around the lifeboat. He saw his rocket launcher lying on the ground. He snapped it onto his back and looked around for his assault rifle. Spying it a few feet away next to the pilot seat, he also grabbed that and slung it around. His pistol was still hidden safely in its side holster. He checked the blast pack and his ammo. One of his assault rifle magazines were smashed, making it unusable. The C-12 was OK.
He hit a button on what was left of the dashboard, and the hatch hissed open. Taking a step out, he found that he was in a cave. Two miles away, he could see the mountain range come to an end, and Jerome’s lifeboat fly threw the sky.
“Well damn. Guess I better start moving…” He said aloud to himself.
“Why not stay a while?” A deep growl rumbled behind him.
Quickly bringing up his assault rifle, he snapped around to face whoever had talked. At first, all he saw a giant dark blue rock. But, as his eyes quickly adjusted to the darker side of the cave, the rock took shape… into… a dragon?
“Damn, I must’ve hit something big on my way down…” he said to himself.
“Other than that mountain?” the dragon asked him. Its head rested on its hands.
‘OK, so it has good hearing.’ He thought.
Keeping his assault rifle aimed at the dragon, he asked it a question. “What the hell are you?”
“I should ask the same thing. After all, you did just crash into my cave.”
“Fair enough. I am a human, now you go.”
“I am a dragon. An elder, if we need to be specific.”
All at once, thoughts shot through his mind. It calls itself exactly what humans do. It speaks English. And, in a sense, he just discovered an alien. This really couldn’t be happening, right? I mean cmon. A dragon?
“Where am I?” Douglas asked.
“As in the surrounding area? The Crystal Mountains. You are not from around here, are you?” The dragon growled.
“Not even from this planet. Do you think you could help me?”
“With what, exactly?”
“Did you see that other meteor?” Douglas pointed to the almost fainted smoke trail.
“Yes.”
“I need to get there.”
“For a trade, perhaps?”
…. A trade? Douglas barely even understood his situation so far, and now he was trading with a dragon. “What do you have in mind…?”
“That metal egg you came out of.”
He looked back at the lifeboat. Well, it was a dragon, he was pretty sure it wouldn’t be able to do much with it, and he got everything he needed from it. Also, it’s not like he could take it with him. “Why do you want that?”
“I am a dragon. We are naturally attracted to rare and ‘shiny’ objects.” The dragon lifted its tail, revealing thousands of gold coins, diamonds, and other expensive gems. “ And you don’t see one of those every day.”
“OK, deal. So what, are you going to fly me out or something?”
“And leave my treasure for other greedy dragons? No. But I will tell you how to get out.” He started as his tail wrapped around the lifeboat and lifted it away. “It’s not as easy as just walking out. I’m not the only dragon, and the small ones can be testy. They think they can take on whatever they see, and they also tend to stay in groups. Stay away from warmer areas, which are where they usually keep to themselves. Also keep away from other caves. Me being an elder, I’m not one to fight. But others usually resort to the first thing that comes to their mind, which is to kill you.” He finished up, observing and toying with his new treasure.
As he talked, Douglas walked over to the edge of the cave. Looking over the landscape, he noticed some area’s with a small amount of smoke trailing up. Looked like a good 10 mile trek to get to the field Jerome crashed in. He turned his head and looked back at the dragon. “Uh, thanks, I guess?”
“Hhhmmm.” The dragon just growled, setting the lifeboat next to him and lying down to rest.
The Spartan stood there for a moment more, shrugged, and jumped down onto another ledge. It cracked a bit under his weight, but held. He continued this routine until he got near the bottom. For the last 20 meters, he slid down, one hand sliding across the side of the mountain to slow himself. He hit the ground, a small thud escaping from under his feet.
He took a small look around. The snow had melted higher up, and the dirt shined freely in the sun. A small, shriveled up shrub here and there, but other than that, barren. He kept his assault rifle unslung as he crept along the small valley.
As he reached the base of another mountain, there was a flash on his radar to the left. He scanned the area, but there was nothing. Maybe the cold was getting to his radar? Doubtful, but as CPO Mendez had always said, never rely on technology. He continued along the base of the mountain, but more wary. He peeked his head around the corner of a boulder. He spotted a faint smoke trail floating into the sky. OK, that area was blocked.
He spun back around and took a detour. He slipped past another mountain. He poked his head around this one to. Clear of life as far as he could see. Still keeping to the shadows, he ran across to the next mountain. He heard a small rockslide behind him. Snapping to attention, he turned around with his MA37 in hand. Again, nothing. These mountains were starting to get to him. Before he could even turn around, there was another red blip behind him.
It rushed towards him, and Douglas attempted to spin on his heel and smack out with the butt of his rifle. Something lashed at his legs and tripped him. He landed on his side, and the thing smashed on top of him.
He turned his rifle at an awkward angle towards his attacker and pulled the trigger. The creature screeched and fell off of him. Jumping back up, he finally got a look at his attacker.
Another dragon, though much smaller and light green, toppled backwards from the rounds. Blood oozed from 5 small holes across its stomach area. As he watched, there was another flash of color behind it, this time red. He took a closer look around him. As he did, he noticed three more, counting the red one, all growling at him from behind cover.
Damn, had they been hunting him?! He gave them credit, that was one hell of an achievement. He hadn’t even noticed them.
The red one he had seen burst from cover and ran towards him. As he did this, he spied two other red blips on his radar rush from behind. Figuring the pair was more of a threat, he turned to meet the others. The one on the left was a dull orange, while the one on the right was a pure white. The orange one looked more bulky, so he aimed and shot 5 times towards its stomach. The bullets bounced off its scales. Okay, they don’t all have thins scales like that poor guy behind him. As he turned to take aim at the white one, something tackled him in the back.
Damnit, he forgot about this one. He was making too many mistakes. That’s how you die.
The red one stomped down on the arm with the rifle and ripped it out of his hands, tossing it behind him. With that, it looked down at his face, and, opening its mouth wide, sent a burst of fire down at him. His shields easily took the damage, but on the inside, his skin started to blister.
As he burned him, Douglas’s free hand shot up and smashed into its face. There was a loud snap, and the dragon roared, releasing his other hand. Douglas reached up and grabbed its face. He dragged its head back down and slammed it onto the rocky ground. His knee flew up into its gut, and he kicked out, knocking the dragon off of him.
The other two had just gotten to him as he pulled out his foot long knife and attempted to bring it down on the red dragons head. The white one’s arm grabbed his hand and head-butted the Spartan with surprising power for such a small dragon. His shield shimmered and threatened to overload. Douglas reeled back from the attack.
The orange one moved to punch him. Douglas easily ducked under it and retaliated with an upwards slash across its face. It left a bloodied scar along its cheek. He pulled his elbow back down onto the back of its head. For a moment the dragon was stunned, and Douglas kicked it down.
Whipping out his pistol, he aimed for the eye. Just before he shot, the white ones tail wrapped around his foot and tripped him. The shot landed next to the oranges ones face and harmlessly pinged away. He landed on his stomach, and was dragged backwards. He turned himself around and aimed for the white one. It kicked out and knocked his pistol away. He lifted his other arm and attempted to stab its other foot.
It caught his hand with his own, and opening wide, sent a blue stream of ice down on his hand. Frost formed around it, then ice, until his hand was completely frozen. The dragon’s hand, though, was unaffected.
Using this to his advantage, instead of aiming down, he swung his frozen arm up onto the dragons chin. It broke, sending ice shards through the air like shrapnel. The dragon recoiled backwards, and Douglas picked himself up. Running forward, he tackled the dragon to the ground.
Before it could move, Douglas grabbed his face and shoved it into the ground and used his legs to pin down its arms. Its tail and legs flailed around, trying to push away the Spartan.
He took a moment to look around. The green one he had originally shot was still curled up in a ball, hands over its bleeding stomach. The red one was apparently unconscious, and the orange one was still dazed.
No buddy to save this one. He looked back down at the dragon. The anger he saw before in its eyes was gone, now filled with desperation. He couldn’t count how many times he had seen this. Marines, civilians, even other Spartans. He tossed the knife and caught it so it pointed down, and brought it down onto its neck, pulled out, got up and stepped back.
The dragon grabbed its neck and desperately tried to suck in air. It helplessly scraped at the ground as the life left his body.
Walking over and retrieving his pistol, he executed the orange dragon. He did the same for the red and the green one.
Once again, he looked around him. The only thing that came to his mind was ‘Damn, what have we gotten ourselves into?’
Picking up his discarded MA37, he quietly turned around and continued out of the mountain range.