He ran back inside the Pelican to see his team attempting to wrench loose a rocket launcher from under a crushed portion of the dropship. “Leave it!” Johnson barked, “We’ve got another Pelican from the ship falling in and Phantoms deploying troops. Grab only what you can carry and let’s go!”
His team immediately forgot about the launcher and grabbed their weapons. Anthony and Siber grabbed some frag grenades while Sammy grabbed her sniper rifle from it’s case. Johnson had already grabbed his gear and he and his team rushed out into the wasteland.
There weren’t many places to hide so they just ran. Their biological augmentations pushing them past normal human limits. Johnson turned his head to see a Phantom flying overhead. The bulbous dropship opened fire with it’s side turrets and main cannon.
Plasma rained down on the Spartans, some of the side turret shots impacting with their suit’s shields. The main cannon created craters in the ground and sprayed sand everywhere “Head towards the glass!” Johnson ordered.
His team immediately turned left towards the glass “forest” a hundred meters away. They sprinted towards their only hope of survival desperately. They were about fifty meters away when the plasma fire stopped.
Johnson didn’t stop running until he was in the glass. Only then did he stop and turn to see why they had stopped pursuing. Another Phantom had flown in and they were both deploying infantry. The second Phantom was deploying near the dropship.
The first infantry troops to land were the large Sangheili warriors. The tall aliens moved swiftly to the inside of the dropship. The smaller, more stunted Unggoy followed.
“Boss, you’re about to see something beautiful,” Anthony said behind Johnson. Johnson turned and looked at him for a second but turned his gaze back towards the Pelican, completely aware of what was about to happen.
He heard a click behind him and a split-second later the Pelican disappeared in a ball of fire and molten metal. The Phantom’s shields flickered and popped as the fire hit the side of it. It leaned to the left violently, righted itself and pulled away with it’s right side ablaze with flames.
“Remote detonators,” Anthony said. “Found ‘em in a crate that got busted open on the landing. Figured they’d search the ship and we decided to leave ‘em a little present.”
“Good call,” Johnson replied. The first Phantom’s troops hit the sand and began to run towards the Spartans.
“Time to leave,” Sammy said. Everybody was two steps ahead of her and were already running in the opposite direction. They wove in between the glass obelisks and used their motion scanners to keep track of their positions. They started to get clumped up and Johnson said “Spread out, three meter spread. We don’t know if they have heavier firepower following us.”
Fireteam Reach did so instantly. They kept running for another couple minutes and then they stopped. They were in another clearing and in the center of it was another Pelican dropship, presumably the one Johnson saw fall into the atmosphere. There were human figures moving around the dropship. More Spartan IV’s.
Johnson opened a COMM channel and said “3 o’clock, Fireteam Reach!”
The Spartans turned and aimed their weapons at Johnson and his team. Johnson stopped running and his team followed suit. He slowly raised his hands to show he was friendly. “Easy Spartans. This isn’t the War Games, we’re on the same team here.”
“Identify yourself.” Johnson heard through the speakers in his helmet. The voice sounded very distrusting and somewhat harsh for some reason.
Johnson didn't expect that and got a little more defensive but he did answer. “First Lieutenant Daniel Johnson of Fireteam Reach. Service number 67-328-792-DJ. How about you do the same?
The other Spartan was silent for a moment and answered with “Second Lieutenant Jason Garrett of Fireteam Harvest. Service number 72-482-629-JG. I've heard about you, Johnson.”
The lack of rank plainly showed it was not the good kind of reputation. He was most likely referring to his psychological tests after the glassing of Reach. That was the only thing condemning about Johnson and his military career. He had been declared mentally unstable and unfit for duty. He had been discharged from the ODST company he had enlisted in. He had been subsequently been picked up by the Spartan IV program and began psychological therapy. He passed with flying colors but Johnson knew how to work the system and was able to hide his PTSD from the shrink's observations.
Only the Office of Naval Intelligence had access to his records. Which meant that Garrett, and most likely his team, were ONI spooks. Daniel hated ONI with a fiery passion. They caused a lot more problems than they solved with their secret missions and experiments that got a lot of Johnson’s closest friends killed.
Johnson recalled a very specific one where he and two other ODST were assigned to protect a science team while they ran experiments near an ancient alien structure. What they didn’t tell them was that the structure had been a testing ground for the ancient alien species known as the Forerunners.
The Forerunners had been testing how to slow the parasite known as the Flood. The science team was able to open the structure, thus releasing the Flood test subjects. The science team was dead within seconds. Johnson and his teammates were able to survive for a little while, call in an evac, and watch as the Pelican came in. Someone forgot to mention that the ODST team that had called were still alive and the Pelican opened fire with machine guns and rockets. Johnson’s teammates had been blown to smithereens and Johnson took four shots from the .50 cal before they realized their mistake.
Johnson’s vision started go red as the memory faded and the next thing he knew he was on top of Garret with his fingers around his throat. He tasted blood in his mouth. Sammy and Anthony began to drag him off of Garret. Johnson realized he had attacked the Spartan and had nearly killed the man. The blood in his mouth was caused from a kick he had received from Garrett
Garrett stood very shakily and Johnson felt the Spartan’s glare through his visor. “This is exactly what I was talking about,” the spook said. “You should be sitting in an insane asylum with a straightjacket. Not leading a team to their deaths on this god-forsaken rock. I am taking command here, you better keep in line or I will shoot you myself”
Garrett never got a chance to see whether Johnson would follow his orders as when he turned back towards his team he disappeared in a flash of purple and blue. The explosion knocked Johnson down to the ground with his team behind him. He looked up to see a Phantom dropping Sangheili warriors on top of Fireteam Harvest. A few of the aliens fell with their purple blood splashing the sand but a few got near enough to slash at the Spartans with their energy swords.

One of the Spartans took a sword through his neck and Daniel saw his bios flatline on his HUD. That Sangheili had his head blown off with a shotgun blast from the Spartan’s teammate. That Spartan was subsequently filled with purple needles as big as his forearms that exploded after a few seconds and sent his gory remains splattering against the Pelican behind him, leaving a mark that looked like someone had thrown a bucket of red paint onto it.
Johnson never saw the last member of Fireteam Harvest die as the Sangheili began to attack him and his team. One lunged at Johnson with a his energy sword. He sidestepped, pulled the alien’s arm around his back, broke it at the shoulder and shot it three times in the head with his sidearm.
He holstered it and slung his BR85 from his back and shouldered it. He pulled the trigger twice and watched as a Sangheili’s shield popped as well as the upper portion of his head. He turned and did the same to the alien’s counterpart. Anthony was armed with a M45E shotgun and made short work of two Sangheili with one shot. The buckshot went through one alien’s chest into the other one’s head. He turned and clotheslined another one that charged him and finished it off with a stomp to the neck.
Siber had her DMR shouldered and had four bodies surrounding her, one was Sammy. Johnson rushed to her and kneeled next to her. A sword had sliced through her chest and melted the armor protecting her. She was holding her chest but it wasn’t moving. He checked her vitals and felt nothing.
Johnson’s vision went red again and when he snapped out of it six Sangheili were lying around him and many more were dead behind him. Siber was dead next to him. She had no left arm and her helmet visor had one of those purple needles through it. It popped, shattering the visor and exposing her face, bloody with a hole in her forehead the size of a golf ball.
Johnson began to feel a pain in his chest and looked down to see a sword sticking in him and protruding through his back. He fell to his knees, eyes glued to the sword. He looked up to see Anthony, helmetless, kneeling in front of him. A Sangheili general was behind him with his hand on Anthony’s shoulder.
Anthony was panting and sweat dripped from the tip of his nose in a steady stream. He looked into Daniel’s eyes and said “Don’t give up yet boss,” he smiled, white teeth showing in fullness. “We’re just getting started.”
Anthony’s head was then in the air and landed in the black sand. The bottom of his severed neck was charred from the Sangheili’s sword. Johnson looked up at the creature that had just killed his friend. It almost looked like it was smiling. Johnson’s vision went red again but this time he moved with a purpose.
He pulled the sword from his chest took one stride and jumped on top of the alien. He knocked it to the ground and stuck the sword through it’s chest, pulled it back out  and, in one fluid motion, swung it across the Sangheili’s neck. Purple blood spattered everywhere as the alien’s life force drained from his body.
Johnson looked back across the battlefield, seeing the charred remains of Garret and his dead team. All of Johnson’s teammates lying in the sand unmoving. Johnson finally did what he had wanted to do since he had been discharged from the ODST. First Lieutenant Daniel Johnson fell onto the sand, and died.