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A very frightened Marine by Dakota McDowra
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Part 1: My 1st Kill
Date: 23 June 2005, 12:00 am
It was a cool and calm morning on the rolling plains of Texas. Birds were chirping, flowers were blooming, and kids were playing. I was stationed there just outta boot camp. I was stationed at Camp Maxey in the northeastern part of the state, it was in "Lamar County." I had completed my basics just a week before. I had never seen combat, or a even a live covenant soldier for that matter, but I was ready and eager. I joined up because I heard the Covenant were coming to Earth soon. I though about them landing in Texas and so I just decided to drop my job being a gun shop owner and joined up. I thought that the Covenant wouldn't attack Texas, but I was dead wrong.
I was just driving around in my warthog with my buddies on patrol. My buddies were PVT. Mitch Baker, PVT. Tommy Lane, and Corpral Phillip Kennedy. I was a lowly private also. I had been assigned to drive since Kennedy was a little skiddish when it came to driving, he hadn't even wanted to drive the Scorpion tank in training. I loved driving it, so powerful, so deadly, so ferocious in the enemies eyes. We were about to place an order at the local McDonald's when we heard screams from the intersection about 600 feet away. We speed down there just in time to see a woman get ripped in half by a Hunter.
Baker was on the LAAG in no time. Then in that place, at that particular time, the warthog dies. I tried to crank it but to no avail. Lane, Kennedy, and I abandoned the 'hog and began to run for cover, when we noticed Baker wasn't getting off the LAAG.
"GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE BAKER!" Kennedy yelled as we were running away from the 'hog.
Baker was like a madman on the LAAG, but he wasn't mad enough. He killed one of the Hunters but the other got pissed and just before Baker could swing the LAAG around to deal with the other Hunter, the Hunter was already shooting the 'hog. It exploded in a rain of shrapnel and fire. The shrapnel actually KILLED the hunter where he stood. Good for us, but not so good for Baker.
"Baker, are you OK?" Kennedy said as we were running to Bakers position.
Baker had been thrown from the 'hog and was still alive, but barely.
"Tell my girl, I fought hard today, and... that I love her." said Baker, trying to spit out some blood.
"You can tell her yourself, you be just fine, son." said Kennedy in a shaky voice.
"Get the hell outta here, Sir." said Baker as he gurgled and drown on his own blood and vomit.
We didn't know what he meant by that until 2 seconds later when plasma started hitting around us. He had seen more troops outta the side of his eye just before he died, what a brave guy.
Grunts, Jackels, Elites, and Banshees were coming straight into town. We hadn't noticed them because we were busy with Baker, but they were coming, and fast. We ran to a small shop to take cover.
"OK men, we need to the hell back to base. Any suggestions would be nice." Kennedy said as he, Lane, and I crouched in the corner of the small plant store for cover.
"Sir, we can radio HQ and get reinforcments. Or we could just take a civilian car and hope we make it out." said Lane.
"Ok then, Lane, we'll radio HQ and hold this position, tell them that there are about 15 Banshees circling us too." said Kennedy as he readied his battle rifle.
"Uniform Six-Eight to HQ! Uniform Six-Eight to HQ! Come in please." said Lane desperatly into the mic of the radio.
"HQ to Uniform Six-Eight, what do ya need?" came a voice over the com.
"We need reinforcements and lots of 'em, preferably warthogs, tanks, and a few aircraft. We are in Paris on Penson and 78th street at the plant store. There are about 200 Covenant ground troops and 15 Banshees. Please send help, we only have 3 men here." said Lane as he was desperatly trying to put a new magazine into his battle rifle.
"Roger that Uniform Six-Eight, we will send 'em in as fast as we can." said the voice over the com.
"Guess we ain't getting paid overtime for this one are we, Corporal?" I said as I readied my battle rifle on the window seal of the north window.
"Guess not." Kennedy said as he laughed.
We waited there for about 10 minutes. We thought maybe the covenant had went another direction and didn't see us go into the plant shop. I was wrong. A gold elite came around the corner with his energy sword glowing hot death. I was stunned to see how huge they were, more than 8 ft. tall probably. I put 21 bullets into him, but he just kept coming.
"GET OUTTA HERE YOU UGLY BITCH!" I yelled as I jumped over the window seal and began to charge him with my rifle.
A sensation of undefinable fear overwhelmed me, so I just started hitting him with the butt of my battle rifle since my clip was empty. The elite's shields flickered and went out with the second hit from the butt of my rifle. I could see the thoughts in the elite's eyes. He swung at me with his sword and missed by only mere centimeters from my face. I could feel the warmth of the blade singe the hairs on my cheek because it was so close. I regained balance and began my melee once more.
SNAP! The butt of the rifle broke off in my blind rage. The elite was still alive. I took out my combat knife and jabbed it deep into his chest.
"AGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.... YOU WILL ALL DIE, HUMAN!" the elite said as he fell into a pool of his own blood.
My first kill. It was certainly a bloody one, but he probably had killed hundreads of humans anyway, so I had no remorse. I quickly picked up his plasma rifle, sword, and plasma grenades from his belt. I had broken my rifle so I thought he might let me use his weapons since he didn't need it anymore. I scurried back to my window and got back into position.
"Well hell, John Wayne, why don't you kill 'em all for us?" said Kennedy as he laughed.
I examined the sword and found a button which turned it off. I was still very scared from actually fighting an Elite, I was shaking very badly. Suddenly a whole group of about 20 grunts and jackals came around the corner about 100 yards away.
"OPEN UP ON 'EM, WE ARE GONNA HOLD THIS SHOP!" said Kennedy as he unloaded about 10 bullets into a singal jackal.
I opened up with my newly acquired plasma rifle, which was inaccurate as hell on full auto. I chunked grenades as fast as I could from my window seal. Suddenly, a voice came over the radio . . .
"Firebird Seventeen to Uniform Six-Eight. We are inbound with two Pelicans of reinforcements, ammo, and 2 warthogs. Also, we are bringing the heat with some of the old-school firepower, Over" said a manly rugged voice.
"Roger that Firebird Seventeen. We need support NOW. We are under heavy attack. Please give me an ETA!" said Lane into his mic.
"ETA about 3 minutes, just hold on Six-Eight." said the rugged voice.
"Roger that, by the way, there are about 15 Banshees hanging around here, so be careful, over" said Lane as he filled a grunts head full of lead.
About 2 1/2 minutes later, I heard something I had only heard in the movies. The "whoomp, whoomp, whoomp" of helicopter blades. They hadn't been used since the pelican came around. I could hear only one of them, the other crafts must be pelicans. About 15 seconds later it came into sight. It was a VIETNAM WAR ERA Huey Gunship. They hadn't been in service since the late 21st century. I had only seen them in museums and movies, how did they get that thing to fly.
The huey came around and did a strafing run on some grunts, jackals, and elites on the other side of a row of buildings. I knew this because I heard their screams as they were being incinerated by a missile filled with incendiary munitions. The huey was equiped with 2 LAAGs on each side of the port doors and marines were gunning down Covenant with those. It was somewhat more effective than the pelican when it came to killing enemies.
I saw the huey fire some homing missiles at the banshees. He took out about 10 them with those rockets. Then the LAAG gunners took out two a piece. The remaining Banshees bugged out and headed off into the sky.
"Well, that wasn't too hard Uniform Six-Eight. Thanks for calling us, we were getting bored just sitting around base besides making mail call." said the huey pilot as he hovered about 160 ft. above us.
"Thanks a lot Firebird Seventeen, we really needed that help. What do ya say we buy you and your boys a round of beers back at base?" said Kennedy into his mic.
"Sure, that would be great Six-Eight, I'll start the tab." said the huey pilot as he laughed.
"Can you please take me up in that thing after we get back to base? I said eagerly into the mic
"Sure, see ya'll then." said the huey pilot as he started towards the base.
We mopped up what was left of the dying covenant forces in the town. Corporal Kennedy was promoted to Sergeant for some reason. We found out that a Covenant Battle Cruiser had set down in Dalles about 10 minutes before we got attacked. They glassed Dalles then set down. Not a mention of there arrival got out because everyone that knew of it were killed before they could get to a radio.
"Those bastards shouldn't've landed HERE, my whole family was in Dalles, I am GONNA KILL ALL THESE FUCKERS" said a short and skinny little runt of a man.
I felt sorry for him, he looked like he was hit pretty hard by it. I later talked to him and his name was James Morrow. We got a few more additions to our squad: a very cute White women medic PFC. Alex Foster; a Black demolitions specialist Pvt. Cody Dien; and a Hispanic sniper Pvt. Guy Alverez.
I decided that I should contact Baker's girlfriend. I got the number from the from his little booklet he had in his foot-locker. I went to a pay-phone and made the call, it rang about four times before she picked up.
"Hello." she said
"Is this Mitch Baker's girlfriend?" I asked
"Yes. Why?" she asked
"Well, we had an accident today. He was killed by Covenant forces." I said grimly.
"How?" she asked
"A hunter blew up the warthog he was in. He wanted me to call you and he said that he will always love you." I said
"Thank you for your call." she said as she began to cry.
CLICK!!!
The phone went dead. She hung up on me. We were all called to a briefing in our squads bunk house. Our sarge was briefing us on where the Covenant were moving. We were going to be lifting off and going to the Orbital Defense Grid to help protect it against more covenant ships that were coming in. They were already under attack and I heard rumors of the "MASTER CHIEF" being on the one we were going to, the Cairo. I never got to ride in that huey though.
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