Halo: The Lost Batallion by Steve Wilson
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Halo: The Lost Batallion
Date: 17 June 2004, 1:20 AM
Chapter 1: Awakening
1739 hours, August 30, 2576 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Leviathan Near Vega III, Epsilon Eridani System.
"All crew members report to battlestations asap, engaging in external combat in t-minus 2 minutes." I heard the faint voice of the captain as I was being awoken from my cryo sleep. Her voice was refreshing to hear. My eyes blurred for a few seconds, then came into focus. I saw people, around 10 of them, 2 of them were pushing buttons and flipping switches while the others held Action Rifles guarding doorways and watching the cryotubes. The tube inlatched and opened. I heard the doctor tell me something. "Sir, you need to evacuate asap. We are being enga-" "Incoming plasma cannon shots, 2 of them. Brace for impact!" Everyone held on for dear life. A loud bang echoed throughout the ship as the first plasma shot hit. I rushed to a computer. It said we were hit heavly on the port side. But, wait a second, the captain said there was two shots coming. Another boom echoed throught the ship. There is was. The lights then shut off and the backups came online. "All unauthorized personel, head to the lifeboats immediately!"
I put on my clothes and armor and rushed to a lifeboat. "Sir, over here!" A marine yelled out to me waving his hand near a lifeboat. I hopped in and strapped myself in. After 5 seconds another person came on the lifeboat. It was one of the civilians. I then heard gunshots from what sounded like an Action Rifle, 2 of them to be exact. A person then came into my sights, it was a Spartan with it's night mission black armor. He was holding 2 Action Rifles shooting at something that I couldn't see. The Action Rifles ran out of ammo and the Spartan hopped inside the lifeboat and closed the door. He told the pilot to go. We disengaged from the ship and headed out. We saw the ship through the window as it left our sights. I felt a temporary sigh of relief, until I heard the pilot of the lifeboat say, "Incoming fighters, enganging us. Brace yourselfs!" Plasma hit the side of the lifeboat and we starting spinning out of control. "We are losing air! Everyone put on your helmets" We put on our space helmets just as the pilot did.
After 15 seconds the lifeboat lost all the air it had in it. I had visions of what might happen to us. We would probably be engaged and blown up, or we might die once we hit the planet, if we made it to the planet. We kept flying for about another minute or so until we heard the pilot say, "We are entering Vega III's atmosphere. Everyone make sure your straps are still secure and locked." I checked my straps. One of them was broken, and I didn't notice this earlyer? I tryed fixing it but it was no good, I figured I was as good as dead when we hit the ground. But, I saw an empty seat up in the front of the lifeboat. I might be able to make it there, but would I risk doing so entering a planets atmosphere? I would have to try. I unlatched my 1 secure strap and held on to the safety rails as I made my way to the empty seat. A light flickered on the pilots dashboard. "What the?" He looked back at me. "What the hell do you think your doing!?"
I looked back at him and said nothing. "Your freakin crazy you know that?" He went back to piloting the lifeboat. I was almost at the empty seat until I heard the pilot say, "Incoming! 2 fighters on our tail!" I started to panic. I leaped for the seat and bashed my knee againest something, god knows what it was. I sat down in the seat and latched the straps together. Know that the seat issue was fixed, what were we going to do about the 2 fighters coming after us? I looked back at the fighters. This was strange, I have never seen fighters like those before. They were Convenant purple with 4 wings front to back. Before I could get a closer look of these mysterious craft, one of the fighters blew up and crashed into the other fighter. I started wondering why they blew up until a transmission came over the radio. "This is Longsword pilot Williams. Those 2 fighters behind you have been taken care of. You are clear to enter the planet safely without disturbance." "Thank you pilot Williams. Can you do us a favor and watch our backs til we land? I have a very bad feeling about this." "No problem sir, we'll land as soon as you do." "Thank you Williams. Lifeboat #23 out."
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