Kyle's POV

I got to my feet but immediately fell again, sliding across the floor sideways and hitting the other wall hard as the Infinity quickly pulled to one side. My vision flashed white in pain as I simultaneously heard a pop the moment I slammed into the wall. Immediately all of the alarms went off and the normally white hallway lights began flashing red. The metal window security shutters closed all around me with large bangs as well. I slowly got to my feet, holding my dislocated shoulder and leaned against the wall, grabbing the railing in case there were any more shakes. What the heck is happening?!!!

I heard boots behind me and turned to see a squad of soldiers marching towards me. One of them, a medic, stopped when he saw my arm.

"Are you okay soldier?! What happened?" He said over the blaring alarms and inspected my arm. I gritted my teeth as he gently moved it around and said, "I hit the wall and it dislocated."

"Well then brace yourself, this is going to hurt." he said, and, without warning, swiftly popped my arm back in place. I cried out as pain shot up my arm and black spots appeared in my eyes. The spots cleared quickly and the initial pain went down to a dull throb. "Sorry, had to do that or you would have tensed up." He laughed nervously with a sympathetic look in his eyes.

I waved off his apology and rolled my shoulder around to make sure it was alright, shaking off the pain. He checked it again and said, "Well you're good to go, hop in this squad and they'll take you to where the covenant are attacking." he said, pointing.

I looked at the squad who were waiting as the medic treated me, confused. Did he really think I was old enough to go to battle? Then I realized at that it was likely neither he or any one else could see how young I was due to the helmet I was wearing. On top of that, my physique was large enough to pass for a slightly shorter adult male, and my armor made me look like any other enlisted.

Before I could protest that I wasn't ready, he quickly pushed me in the squad and I got trapped in the middle of the tight formation. I was forced to keep up with their fast pace to avoid tripping myself or anyone else as they ran into the hangar where the battle was going on. As we turned the corned of the hangar door, I could see that there were covenant all over the place and I barely missed getting hit by a needler shard. The covenant had destroyed most of the ships that had been docked in the hangar and were trying to advance towards the exits we had just entered. The broken ships and crates of supplies were acting as cover for the responding personnel. The squad spread out, having been briefed before-hand and moving into their positions, and the door shut behind me, locking.

I stood there for a moment and internally panicked. I had never been in a real battle before and was unprepared. I tried going back for the door but it was it looked like no one was getting out until the covenant were all dead. I frantically looked around as bullets and plasma rounds missed me by a few feet to only a few inches. A shard skidding off my armor took me out of my panic and I dove for cover behind a storage crate. Two other soldiers were there and no one had seen me freeze up.

"Why aren't you shooting soldier?" One yelled over to me and I shrugged, my hands out. He took that to mean that I had no weapon and said, "Here take this one." and passed me a standard battle rifle. I sat there like a deer in headlights. I'm not ready... I'm not ready! I thought. I tried to explain saying, "Sir, I am only-" but he nodded for me to get shooting and before I could explain myself, started firing at the Covenant again himself. I looked out over the crate and saw most of the covenant near the force field opening of the hangar that kept the air in but let physical objects enter and leave. You can do this, I told myself, it's just like training.

Except you're actually killing, a small part of my conscience told me. At least it's not humans!, I countered.

I mentally prepared myself and popped out from behind the crate, resting my elbows on it for stability and firing at the closest grunt. A few rounds missed at first but then I actually hit him! I didn't have time to cheer though because a shard exploded on the crate right in front of my face. I ducked and looked to my left, watching helplessly as a soldier got taken out by a shard and another by an Elite's energy sword as it charged over their crates and stabbed him in the chest. The Elite then was blown into a million pieces as someone threw a grenade at it's feet. As shards exploded and plasma rounds singed the floor and the crate around me, I faced the reality of my situation.

I was going to Die if I didn't get out of here.

I looked for an exit and saw one across the room. It was the only exit, probably because they could only risk leaving one open so the covenant would stay trapped in the hangar. I cursed, I'd have to run across a huge amount of open ground to get there and would be completely vulnerable to enemy fire as I did so. I checked the area around the opening. There were only UNSC soldiers that I could see thankfully, and I didn't see too many covenant rounds going through the open area. I just might be able to make it. I calmed my nerves, propped myself up into a kneeling position, and booked it as fast as I could. Shards and plasma rounds whistled around me as some of the Covenant noticed the exposed human soldier running across the gap. After what felt like an eternity, I looked behind myself to check my progress and saw that I was only a third of the way there. I pumped my legs harder in desperation as more enemy fire began to focus on the area around me.

I wouldn't make it if this kept up, so I looked to my right and took out an elite and a few grunts as I ran. I missed a covenant to my right and before he died from another soldiers fire he shot me in the arm with a Needler. I slowed a bit in pain but pushed on. You can do this... You can do this..., I repeated over and over in my head. I remembered that needles could explode on contact with other shards so I pulled the one in my right arm out with my left hand, gritting my teeth as blood came out, and threw it away from me as it exploded with another shard. I finally got close to crossing the gap but this wasn't over until I reached the door.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

As I neared the group guarding the door, I spotted a grunt on the Covenant's side get up. It had a grenade in its hand, ready to throw it at a large group of soldiers near the door in front of me to my right. I slowed, deciding whether to try and kill it and risk getting shot myself, or try to save the soldiers. Even if I did stop, there was a possibility I wouldn't get a good hit in until it was too late.

That didn't matter though and I knew it. I made my choice and stopped completely to increase my chances of hitting it, taking aim. It was raising its arm to throw it and everything seemed to slow down. I shot, and watched the bullet hit the grunt square in the head. However, it had already started to throw it and my shot jerked it's hand to the side. Everything sped up again and the grenade sailed through the air... towards me! I ran as fast as I could towards the soldiers, only a few feet away before it exploded, propelling me towards the soldiers I had saved.

I flew through the air and hit the wall behind the group, hard and upside down. Hard enough to make a small dent in the metal. Black spots appeared in my eyes for a few seconds from the impact of my head hitting it. I then fell from the wall and dropped to the ground ungracefully, collapsing onto my stomach.

When the black spots cleared, I could see that a few soldiers from the group were crowded around me. My entire right side hurt and I couldn't move my leg due to pain. I groaned and rolled onto my back. Why did I have to be wearing my armor during a stinking Covenant attack and get stuck in this situation? One of the soldiers asked, "Are you all right man? Where are you hurt?"

I tried to speak but all I could get out was a strangled cough. Oh yeah, the breath had been knocked out of me too. He seemed to grimace and as I tried again he shook his head as to say that I didn't need to speak. I took in strangled breaths as a couple of them came over to assess my injuries while the rest continued fighting.

One of them took off my helmet after confirming I didn't have spinal injuries so I could breath. The movement still hurt a little and I grimaced as he pulled it off. As he did so, I saw a shard hit the wall next to me and the others moved one of the metal barriers closer to the us to better cover the group from Covenant fire. I was dragged behind the provided crate, someone pulling me from behind by lifting me from under my arms. Once they set me down and finally got a good look at my face, one of them immediately said, "Holy crap, he's just a kid!"

"We need a medic over here stat!" A soldier near the opening shouted down the hall, seeing my bloody arm. The other two gaped for a moment, exchanging astonished, confused, and bewildered looks. After the longest 3 seconds of my life, one finally said, "How the heck did he get here, he's way to young for this."

I finally started to get my breath back and coughed out, "Accidentally...pushed...in line."

"Well we need to get you to a medic. Your arm's bleeding and your leg is pretty scraped up" He said and then he and the other soldiers exchanged looks.

"What?" I asked and the other went back to covering for us. The soldier said, "Lets get you to a medic." The medic came over and took a look at me. He shook his head at my apparent age, looking strangely at the group for a second before wrapping my arm first after filling the wound with bio-foam. I cried out as he sprayed the foam into it and a soldier have me a piece of cloth from a crate to bite when it was time for my leg. The medic put the disinfectant on it and I bit down hard on the rag as the stinging pain flared up.

Then he wrapped it and told another soldier to help him walk me out of the Hangar. They stood me up, me grimacing and I put my arm around his shoulder. Another soldier put my helmet back on and provided covering fire as they dragged me out quickly. I was set on a stretcher and a different group of people without armor began rolled me away.

I lifted my head and looked at the group through the door as the view of the Hangar was slowly covered by the door frame. There was a large Boom and I heard a cheer from the soldiers before I was rolled out of audible range.

As they rushed me to the infirmary, I passed Seth in the hallway since our barracks were close to the affected Hangar. His eyes widened at my wounds and I shrugged as best I could, grimacing in pain before I was rolled out of view. Every shake had my arm and leg in a world of hurt so I focused on the gray, metal ceiling as we moved through the hallways. I got rolled into the infirmary, a doctor greeting us and guiding us to an empty bed. There were several other soldiers already here being treated, but as far as I could see I was one of the less injured ones thankfully. They set me on a table as carefully as they could and the Doctor checked me over.

He said, "Thankfully, they aren't actually major injuries. In a few minutes, you'll be back on your feet. Next time though, I would avoid fighting until you are an adult, you could have died out there."

Another doctor joined him and they took off my armor and cut back parts of the under-layer. They removed all of the pieces and then moved me into another room with medical equipment all around. I was put under for a few minutes and when I woke up I was back in the main room and nothing hurt.

Surprised, I moved my arm and leg, only feeling some slight pain. I looked at the doctor who was doing a report at the end of my bed and asked, "What'd you do?"

He smiled and said, "Oh good, you are awake. Your leg had a few moderate fractures that had separated from the bone so we put a metal staple in it just in case. You'll find that it's kind of like a reinforcement. Your arm had some shard residue in it so we cleaned it out and applied a healing patch and wrapped it in bandages. You'll have to come back every other day for your arm but otherwise you are good to go. Just be careful and no running for at least a week."

I sighed in relief and sat up slowly. My armor had been put pack on and I put on my helmet. I got up, wincing slightly and they showed me out. I noticed that the alarms had stopped and there were no more shakes. The metal panels had slid back up too. I walked back to my quarters, confused. What happened to the fight? Some soldiers were marching back. They seemed to be happy so I guess we won. I entered my quarters and as I was taking off my armor, heard the announcements come on. It said, Deck B and the pelican bay are on lock-down. The shakes were just an engine malfunction. Everything will report back to normal. It then cut off, leaving me more confused than ever. Why didn't they tell the truth? I sat at my computer, about to message Seth and Slash when a messenger came to my quarters.

He walked in, briskly reported, "The First Lieutenant has requested to see you, you have 15 minutes." And left.

I got up, once again confused, but also a bit worried, and walked down the hall towards his quarters, stopping just outside the door. The door opened and I walked in. Uh-oh.

__________________________

Comment, rate, and don't forget to favorite to continue following the story!

-Steele