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ODST Saga: Chapter 1
Date: 5 April 2002, 5:42 pm
"This is as close to the objective as I can get you without giving away your presence Lieutenant." Radioed Courtney. Courtney, or Alpha 213, was our Pelican Drop ship pilot. We were engaged and had known each other since high school, the first thing I was going to do when this war was over is marry her. Some say having a close relationship with someone else in the corp. wasn't a smart idea, I disagree, you need a close bond with someone who most likely will pull your ass out of a hot zone every other mission. The same goes for my squad who I'm in charge of. We are a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, five of us, the best ODST this side of the human colony Sigma Octanus II. The squad is made up of Private Seth Porter, our high explosives expert. Private Brett Wallace, our radar operator and highly skilled in the use of the standard issue MA5B Assault Rifle. He could take out a grunt from 300 yards away using no more than 5 rounds. Corporal Chad Gibbons one of two snipers. Sergeant Kevin Stewart, our other sniper and my combat equivalent, the only reason he hadn't made Lt. was because of a leg injury that prevented him from performing at 100%. And finally me, Lieutenant Robert Clower, 27 years old and I have spent the last decade in the Marine Corp. I have known all these men for many years and I am fortunate to have a squad with so many skilled and dedicated men, I hardly ever pull rank with them, as far as I am concerned we are equal and call each other by name. Our latest mission had taken us to a Covenant facility in the Western Hemisphere of Sigma Octanus II. They had almost totally decimated the civilian and military population on this continent and set up multiple headquarters throughout the terrain. Intel reports the covenant have set up a facility for studying and producing genetically enhanced versions of the most deadly chemical and biological agents ever known to humanity. Our objective was strictly hit and run, which is what we were good at, get in complete the mission and get out before the Covenant even knew what happened. For this mission we would have to find our way from the DZ to a Covenant structure, take out any external guards we encountered, sneak into the building and find the laboratory at which time we will place a small tactical nuke and get the hell out of there. "Roger that Alpha 213, stand by for extract." "Okay guys the structure should be two clicks over that ridge. I want Chad and Kevin heading point, once you get to the top of the ridge scan for Covenant patrols. Brett you follow behind for support." "Yes, sir!" We began to move through the heavily wooded hills towards our objective, alert for any movement that might signal the Covenant were onto us. "Hey, boss, I got a patrol at 2 o' clock made up of 6 grunts and 2 jackals heading point. Request permission to fire at will." Reported Chad. "Denied, you and Kevin select and take out the jackals. Brett, once the jackals go down open fire on the grunts." I herd 2 rounds leave the barrels of the sniper rifles followed by several coughs of Brett's silenced assault rifle and that was the last of that patrol. We encountered 2 more identical patrols and the same procedure was executed with maximum efficiency. We had a visual on the structure; it was 500 yards directly in front of us. The only guards we could see were 2 Hunters by the entrance. "Snipers, take your targets and remember that soft orange spot on the stomach." 4 seconds later the Hunters were dead. "Everyone take out your MA5Bs and silence them, were moving in on the objective now!"
ODST Saga: Chapter 2
Date: 8 April 2002, 11:14 am
"Seth, take point, makes sure there aren't any Covenant around the corner waiting to ambush us." "Yes, sir!" Seth eased around the entrance to the structure and gave the all clear. "Stay alert, I don't need to remind you all that the chances of cloaked Elite units is extremely high, as soon as we are at the end of this corridor switch to infrared specs." We made our way down the empty entrance corridor expecting to be met with full force resistance from multiple Elites. Nothing. "Anyone picking up anything on sensors?" "Negative. Everything looks...peaceful, I don't like it boss." Said Seth "Neither do I, we shou--" My sentence was cut short as I saw an energy sword power up in mid-air behind Seth. He turned around and fired his weapon but the Elite somehow had it's shields enabled while it was cloaked, they took the damage and I watched in horror as Seth was cut from leg to head by the energy sword. "Forget the silenced weapons, they already know we're here! Fire at will!" I quickly grabbed my shotgun that I brought for back up and shoved it under the Elite's chin and pulled the trigger, he no longer had a head. "Men we need to keep going as far into the structure as we can and plant the nuke, if these genetically engineered diseases escape and infect the humans on this planet there's no telling what kind of damage they could cause." "Boss I'm picking up multiple signals on radar, I count at least 10 and they' re big, Hunters I would guess." Said Brett "Damn" I thought "there's no way the four of us can hold off 10 Hunters." "This is as far as we go. Set the nuke on a 30 minute timer, I hope its enough to completely level this facility as well as wipe out anything a few hundred feet below it." I grabbed the dead Elite's energy sword and powered it up. "Lets move before those Hunters get here and spoil our fun." We moved to the doorway and upon exit we were greeted by plasma fire from 6 Ghosts. "Shit, we're trapped!" Just then the Hunters appeared at the end of the corridor and I could see them charging their plasma cannons. "I've got an idea, on my mark everyone duck!" 5 Hunters fired their weapons simultaneously. "Duck!" I could feel the heat as the super heated plasma passed directly over my body. Just then the plasma impacted the ghosts and when I got up and looked I could see a white hot pile of molten metal, what must have been 2 ghosts because the 4 others were intact. "Alpha 213 we need extract now!" "Roger that, I'm on my way." "Kevin! Chad! Take out those ghost pilots, we need to get to the LZ now!" " Brett come with me, we're going to try and draw their fire." Brett and I fired on the ghosts leaving their sides exposed to sniper rounds. Kevin and Chad made Covenant swiss cheese out of the pilots. "Everyone grab a ghost and split up, meet at the extract point in less than 10 minutes, I want plenty of time to put some distance between us and this nuke." As we began to split up I remembered the Hunters that were only a few yards away, as I looked back I saw plasma coming straight for me. "Holy shit!" The plasma impacted the ground next to me but it was still enough to slag my ghost and throw me 20 feet from it. I was still conscious but I noticed a sharp pain in my leg "broken" I thought. I reached for my radio but it was a useless melted heap of metal and circuits. My armor had gotten welded to each other and wasn't providing much protection anymore so I decided to dump the extra weight. I was fortunate to have been blown behind a rock. I guess the Hunters thought I had been killed and was among the slag of the ghost because they were retreating back into the building. I had to find some form of transportation or else In about 20 minutes I would be nuked along with the rest of the Covenant bastards within a 2-mile radius. I knew there was no chance of anyone even knowing what had happened to me because we all split up and they were long gone by the time I had been blown up. Maybe if I was lucky they would realize something happened to me when I didn't meet up with them at the LZ. If not then I was sure Courtney wouldn't leave me before at least making a pass over the area. I peeked over the rock to see if maybe there was an un-attended ghost or banshee or anything I could use to get to the LZ. To my horror there were no vehicles but there was 3 black armored Elites, the best of the best, supported by 4 jackals and 10 grunts. "Well it could be worse I guess, there could be Hunters among them also and they could have seen me, that would be real bad." I thought. I herd the shouting of the Elites issuing orders to the grunts and jackals. "Shit I hope they aren't planning on searching the area for me." I peeked over the rock again to see if they were spreading out, it was a bad choice. One of the Elites saw me out of the corner of his eye and began pointing at me and shouting in his alien tongue. I quickly searched my armor for any weapon that I could hold them off with. I found the energy sword, 3 grenades and my pistol. I took the bundle of grenades and threw it where most of the enemies were. The Elites almost instinctively jumped away but the dimmer grunts and jackals payed no attention to it. I zoomed in on the bungle with my pistol and fired. The following explosion killed 5 of the grunts and 3 of the jackals but the Elites remained unharmed. In the chaos I managed to kill the rest of the jackals and the remaining Grunts ran off into the woods screaming, This did not make the Elites happy, I watched as they fired upon the cowardly grunts, killing them all. "Damn it I can't kill 3 Elites with a pistol and I sure as hell ain't walking close enough to them to use the energy sword." I checked the ammo in my pistol. One round left. "Damn if that's not lucky I don't know what is." I thought. There's no way im going out like this. Just then I herd the familiar hum of a Warthog engine revving up. "That better be what I think it is." I looked in the direction the sound appeared to be coming from, it was what I thought, Kevin in the driver seat, Chad riding shotgun and Brett was manning the chain gun. "I love you guys!" I shouted. One of the Elites charged my position and leaped into the air at an angle that would land him right on top of me, but I remembered my energy sword and just as he was coming down I powered it up and impaled the Elite, sending a thorough coating of his blood all over my body. The other 2 Elites were not scared at all and foolishly held their ground, Chad picked one off with his sniper rifle and Brett killed the other with his chain gun. "Alpha 213 brought us a warthog so we thought we might as well come save your ass!" Shouted Kevin "Great now lets get the hell outta here before this damn place goes up and takes us with it!" I climbed into the back of the Warthog and we were at the LZ within a few minutes. "Damn, Kevin, as soon as we get back to HQ I'm signing you up for driver's ED." As soon as we had the warthog attached and we were strapped in, the drop ship took off. "Hey, Courtney, do you like fire works?" I asked. "What do you mean?" A few moments later the timer on the nuke ran out and the structure erupted in a ball of nuclear fire and smoke. Back at HQ debriefing went as usual except they were curious about the Elite soldier who had shields on while also cloaked. I told them all I knew was that it didn't show up on infrared scans but it bled and died like a normal Elite. Intel seemed extremely interested in this possible new technology, I didn't care, all it meant to me is that we would have to be more alert on the next missions. We had a funeral for Seth; standard UNSC service except his family was there to attend unlike many other soldiers. Those bastard Covenant murdered my heavy weapons expert and my good firend, those were hard to come by. I would have to start looking for a replacement for Seth immediately; HQ wouldn't let us go on another mission without being at full strength. They gave me power to recruit up to 3 extra men to reinforce my team. I woke at 0500 hours the next morning and decided the best place to start my search was the UNSC training camp. The soldiers there would be green still, eager to see combat and head strong, that's not the type I needed for Special Forces missions but I might as well at least look. I met one man that didn't look very bright but he was 6'8" and built like an ox. I asked the Chief Petty Officer what he knew about him. "His name is Jonathan Harris, he goes by "The Bulldog" he's 30 years old and weighs 315 Lbs. I've seen him turn over a fully loaded Warthog single handedly." He looked like the perfect man to carry the new rocket launcher, which could fire 4 rockets simultaneously or in succession. I decided he would be the man to replace Seth as our heavy weapons expert. "Have him transferred to my squad immediately Chief." I thought I should also at least look for 2 more recruits but there didn' t appear to be anyone here worth my time so I headed back to HQ to sort through their files. After 2 hours of carefully screening through all the profiles I had, I chose 2 men; David Johnson, who I already knew from ODST training a few years back, and his younger brother, Alex Johnson, a fairly new ODST recruit but he looked promising and he worked well with his brother and that's the kind of cooperation I needed on my team. I had great expectations from my team, that is if they accepted the new replacements. Seth would be a hard man to replace mentally, we all had a level of communication from working together for so long on so many missions, we almost knew what each other was thinking, that's something that cannot be duplicated. That is what scared me most about our next mission, I was afraid that we wouldn't perform as well as we had in the past and that could cause us the mission or even worse, our lives. Today would be the day I introduce the squad to the new editions and it would be our first day of training together as a new team. I was very determined to get them used to each other and combat ready as soon as possible. "Front and center!" Chad Brett and Kevin lined up at attention. Jonathan, David and Alex lined up next to me across from the others. "I've chosen replacements for Seth, I know it's not the same but I'm sure in time you will come to accept them as part of the team. Everyone introduce yourselves to each other, get to know and trust them." Everyone took turns introducing themselves to one another, from what I could tell everything was going smoothly, except I think everyone, including me, was overwhelmed by the sheer size of Jonathan.
ODST Saga: Chapter 3
Date: 18 April 2002, 12:58 am
I was eager to get to training today. I woke the team at 0400 hours to start a training mission that had been set up for us. We were transported by two warthogs to a sixty-acre training ground made of part forest, part field, and part hills. We would be fighting against a type of "smart" robot, they were programmed with not only intelligence and battlefield tactics, but they also were capable of exhibiting emotions such as fear, a sense of self-preservation and courage. They should be formidable foes. This training op would be the perfect thing to get the team acquainted with each other's tactics. "These robots we will be fighting against may not be as deadly or intimidating as The Covenant but make no mistake, they are lethal. Brett, I want you to stay ahead of us and radio back to me if you see anything. Alex and David, you're taking up the rear. Everyone else is with me." "Yes, Sir!" They shouted. "Good, now lets move out and neutralize this enemy as quickly as possible." We moved through the forest and had no idea how large of a force we would be facing, nor did we know if they had armored support. However if they did that shouldn't be much of a problem, I had given Jonathan the new M20 SSM Rocket Launcher which was identical to the M19, except that it had 4 barrels instead of 2 and it came with an improved targeting system. With firepower like that not even a Scorpion Main Battle Tank would stand a chance. We hiked for about 30 minutes without any sign of enemy troops. Just then my radio sprang to life. "Boss I've spotted the enemy camp. I see around 30 troops as well as chain gun emplacements around the perimeter. There is also a Scorpion tank and 2 Warthogs inside the camp, which appears to be about one acre in size." "Copy that, we're moving in behind you and should be there shortly." 30 troops would be difficult to take out alone, but they also have vehicular support. Time to form a plan of action. I counted 5 chain guns with their gunners sitting beside them watching for enemy movement. The guns would be the second things that needed to go. "Bulldog, I want 2 rockets to hit the Tank and one rocket each for the Warthogs. Snipers, concentrate on taking out the gunners then soften the infantry. The rest of you come with me, we're going to move around to the opposite side of the came and flank them as soon as the vehicles are gone." We got in position so that we would be able to rush in during the ensuing chaos after the vehicles and gunners were taken out and use the wreckage as cover while Chad and Kevin continued to soften the troops and provide cover fire for us. "Ok, on my mark begin the assault, I want you to exhaust your ammo by taking out as many enemies as possible, when the vehicles are destroyed we will use them as cover and mop up any stragglers." The adrenaline began to build in my veins as I prepared for combat. "3...2...1...mark!" I herd the sound of the rockets leave the launcher and sniper rifles firing followed by the metallic cries of the robots as they became incapacitated by the sniper rounds. The turret of the tank was blown completely off by the blast of 2 rockets and it crushed 2 robots when it landed. I herd an explosion followed seconds later by another explosion. I looked over and saw the burning remains of the 2 Warthogs. The sniper rifle fire ceased. "All right here we go, David and Alex use the tank as cover, Brett you use the warthog on the right and ill use the one on the left as cover. Go go go!" I shouted at them. We ran at full sprint towards our cover. The robots regained composure as soon as the barrage of 14.5mm sniper rounds stopped and they realized where we were. "How many enemies remain?" "I can see 6 but I'm out of ammo." Radioed Chad. "Ya, same goes for me." Added Kevin. I tossed a grenade over my shoulder to see if I could flush the robots out. 4 seconds later I herd the explosion followed by congratulations over the comm. link from Chad, Kevin, and Jonathan for destroying 2 of the robots. "Excellent." I thought. "Brett, you and I are going to move around from the sides and distract them so that David and Alex can pick them off." "Roger that, I'm ready when you are." "Go." We moved low using various debris as cover while we moved along firing several bursts of armor piercing rounds from our MA5Bs. When we had gotten almost directly behind them we began a full assault. To our surprise they retreated directly into the spot where David and Alex were waiting. The two brothers were more than happy to make scrap metal out of their heads. "Chad any stragglers?" "No, I can't see any, I think you got them all, nice work guys." "Congratulation team, it appears we have passed this training exercise with flying colors. The question now is are you ready to take on The Covenant?" "Hell yeah!" Came the enthusiastic reply from everyone.
ODST Saga: Chapter 4
Date: 22 April 2002, 9:36 pm
"Lieutenant we need you to do something now before the Covenant kill us all!" Kevin pleaded. Plasma fire was all around us; it looked hopeless. We were out numbered at least 50 to 1 and had lost the element of surprise, we were screwed. I was behind a boulder with Kevin and Chad trying to stay out of the line of fire. I peeked over the rock and saw the meter tall Grunts transform into 12 foot tall Hunters. I ducked back down and looked around at what was left of my team. The charred remains of Brett, Alex, David, and Jonathan cut through me like a razor blade. The Covenant had so easily murdered my friends. How did we end up like this anyway? I couldn't remember anything about how we got here or what our mission was. Chad and Kevin ran out from around the rock and opened fire on the covenant but to no avail. Kevin got hit in the leg by a plasma shot then another splashed across his chest, he crumpled over in agony as one final shot hit him in the gut. Chad caught a trio of plasma in his face; he fell to the ground dead. I couldn't take it anymore and began to fire on the Covenant. I saw a Hunter's Fuel Rod gun charge up and fire at me. I went to move out of the way but I was frozen in place, my legs simply wouldn't respond. The intensely bright plasma burst almost blinded me. I looked directly at it welcoming my fate. I screamed and sat straight up in my bunk, drenched in a cold sweat. I sat still for a moment trying to regain my composure. "Just a dream." I muttered. I looked at my clock, it read as 5:12 AM. I was supposed to be at mission briefing at 6:00. I quickly showered, shaved, and put on my uniform. As soon as I was ready I went to get my squad together. They were already awake and ready. We loaded up into an altered Warthog; the chain gun had been removed and replaced with seats. When we arrived at HQ we were greeted by an MP who asked for Identification, I showed him and he escorted us to a briefing room. "Welcome Lieutenant Clower, at ease." said General Harris. "Thank you, sir." "Lieutenant, installation 4-687 Beta reports that they are under attack by a large Covenant force. We believe they are after the captured Covenant scientist under observation there. The installation can't hold out much longer and we can't afford to loose the opportunity to study this new Covenant species, it may hold secrets that could be valuable to turning the tide of this war. We are sending you and your squad in to retrieve the scientist and return it here for further study. Your secondary objective will be to repel the Covenant and attempt to keep the structure under UNSC control. Lieutenant, I trust your judgment, if you feel that you and the other marines have no chance, abandon it and get back here alive. You will have a Sky hawk jump jet on standby if you need a clear escape route. Do you understand your mission?" "Yes, sir, one question though, how are we supposed to get the scientist to safety while we are under attack by Covenant?" "There is a special hover transport crate with reflective titanium-A armor; it should provide a substantial amount of protection for the scientist. But if I were you I wouldn't rely on that only, try to keep it out of sustained fire." "I understand sir." "Good, you will be leaving as soon as you and your squad are ready. Alpha-213 is waiting in hangar 10." "Sir all we need is 15 minutes to arm ourselves." "Very good then. Good luck Lieutenant." "Thank you, sir" I turned to face the squad. "Everyone understand?" I asked. "Sir, yes sir!" "Then lets get going." We moved into the armory, no one else was there. We put on our jump suits, which were full body except for the helmet. They were solid black and made of a new titanium-polymer mix which provided an excellent amount of protection considering its size and weight, only about 7 Lbs, most of which was the helmet. "Everyone grab a combat knife, a pistol and four grenades. Brett, Alex, David, and Jonathan take MA5Bs. Everyone except Jonathan take a shotgun, Jonathan take the new rocket launcher. Kevin and Chad, we only need one sniper so, which one of you wants to be it?" Chad raised his hand. "Ok then, Kevin take a shotgun and an MA5B. Everyone take as much ammo as you feel comfortable carrying." I took a shotgun, a MA5B, a pistol, four grenades, and a combat knife as well as a rucksack with 3 boxes of 25 shotgun rounds, 4 extra clips for the pistol and 8 clips for my assault rifle. Chad put 3 med kits in his in addition to a box of 24 sniper rounds. Everyone else took ammo similar to what I took; if we needed to we could share ammo. "Ok let's go recover that Covie scientist. Move it out, double time!" As we loaded into the drop ship Courtney greeted us. "Ready to go Lieutenant?" "Ready when you are." "Ok hang on 'cause here we go." The ship accelerated at exceptional speed, for a Pelican anyway. "New engine Courtney?" "That's right and we're the first to test it out." The thought of trusting my life to technology that hadn't even been fully tested made me uncomfortable to say the least, if something happened to the new engines there would be no way to get off of the Pelican. If we survived the impact we wouldn't be in any condition to hold off a Covenant strike force no matter how small they were. I pushed the thought aside, the last thing any soldier wanted was to die helpless with no way to save themselves. "Aren't we lucky?" I said sarcastically. The ride to the DZ was significantly shorter than usual, it took an average of 1-2 hours to get to our drop zone but this time it only took 30 minutes, I hoped we wouldn't have any problems with the new engines, I could get used to arriving at our target early. Something told me it was too good to be true though, and I knew from experience that my hunches were usually right. As we approached from the rear of the building I could see covenant troops and mortar tanks laying siege to the structure, a shell from a Scorpion destroyed one tank, I counted 8 remaining though. We had better make this one a quickie or else we would be toast. We were dropped directly behind the building and as soon as we were all ready entered from the emergency exit. the power was flickering, the tanks must have hit the power generators, I hoped the back up generators inside the building would kick on. We passed marines in the halls running to the front line to try and help out. I asked one where the Covie scientist was. "Bottom floor, sir" Great, that meant we had 5 floors to go, if we could get to an elevator it wouldn't be a problem but trying to get that hover crate up 5 flights of stairs would take too much time, that would be un acceptable. We reached the stairs and ran down them to the bottom floor where the scientist would be waiting. We passed a door, above the entryway a sign read "AUTHORISED PERSONAL ONLY" "this must be it." The door was locked. "Jonathan would you please open this door?" "You got it." He kicked the door with all his strength, it put a sizeable dent in it. two more kicks and it was knocked off. As soon as the door hit the ground I herd a human's voice "Oh no! The Covenant are here!" "Everybody down! We are with the UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, we are here to recover the Covenant scientist you are studying. We're under direct orders from General Harris to get it out of here unharmed. Where is it?" One of the scientist pointed to a glass tube with a diameter of around 6 feet and a height of about 10 feet. "How do we get it out of there?" "I must first deactivate the pressure locks and then sedate the specimen before it is safe to transport, the procedure should take 15 minutes." "That's too long." I walked over to the tube and looked at the Covenant, it was around 5 feet tall and had pinkish purplish colored skin, it wasn't humanoid like the other Covenant, it had no arms or legs instead it had tentacle like appendages and carried some sort of hover pack that enabled it to move. I looked into its eyes then smashed my assault rifle into the tube, it shattered. The Covenant tried to escape, I grabbed hold of it and we both fell to the floor. It thrashed around and it was surprisingly strong. "Get that damned hover crate open!" I shouted. Chad and Alex ran over and opened the crate then brought it over to me. I wrestled the Covenant into the crate then shut the door. I looked at the human scientist "you civilians and your damned procedures, now that is the quick way to do things." I said. He looked at me with disgust in his eyes, military personal and civilians didn't mix well. The backup generators kicked in and we had power to essential systems, including the elevator. We, followed by the human scientist, boarded the elevator and headed for the ground floor. The doors opened and the scientist walked out towards the front entrance with a pistol in his right hand. "Wait where are you going?" I asked. "I must do what I can to hold off the Covenant." he replied This man was a civilian, he had no combat training, and he wouldn't last more than 10 minutes in combat. I pondered the situation for a moment, my orders were to try and secure the facility, the scientist wouldn't be much help to that cause but he might create a distraction for the Covenant. I looked up at the man, as my eyes met his an Elite came up behind him and sideswiped at his head, knocking it clean off. "I guess no more marines are left if this Elite got by." I opened fire with my AR, ventilating the Elite's skull. "Close the entrance Jonathan!" I shouted. He hefted the four huge barrels up and fired off two rockets at the door way and then two more at the ceiling, the falling debris closed off the entire hallway and bought us some time. "Everybody out the back, we need to move before the Covenant catch onto us." We darted out the back exit we came from and through some wooded areas towards our extract point. We would be there in about 10 minutes if we kept up this pace. "Alpha - 213 we have the package and need dust off now! I'm signaling with blue smoke." "Roger Lieutenant, I'm on my way, hang tight." "Set up a perimeter around the crate, keep your eyes open for any Covenant." "This is Pelican Alpha 213, the new engines exploded and I am losing altitude rapidly! I don't know how much longer I can hol--" Static. "All right men, sounds like our ride out of here has been scrubbed. Brett get on radio and tell them we need alternate emergency extract. We'll meet them at the original LZ after we find where Alpha 213 crashed." "Yes, sir." Brett got on a secure channel with Headquarters. "Sir, HQ says we'll have to get into non-hostile territory before they can make an extract." "Fine. We'll radio them after we've inspected Alpha 213's crash site. Brett, see if you can pick up a distress signal from the drop ship." "I've got one sir, it's about 3.5 clicks south of here, it shouldn't take more than a few hours to get there on foot." "Lets move out then." We hiked through hills and thick forest for 3 hours without seeing any Covenant. When we arrived at the crash site we saw the burning wreckage of Alpha 213's Pelican. There didn't appear to be any sign that Courtney had made it out alive. I walked up to the cockpit, the windows were tinted to shield the pilot's eyes from bright sunlight or large explosions, I couldn't see into it, I didn't want to see. I took off my glove that contained the hand on which I wore my engagement ring; I took it off and tossed it into the smoldering fire. "Goodbye." I whispered. I found two pieces of the Pelican's hull and tied them in a cross with a strip of bandage from one of Chad's med kits. I sat down in the dirt for a moment letting what had just happened sink in. I took a deep breath and stood up. "You ok?" asked Alex. "I'll be fine, let's finish this mission." I looked up and saw another Pelican screaming across the sky. This one had taken heavy damage; they must have been attacked by some Covenant on the ground. As I watched it head for the ground I thought I saw a person fall out of a hole in the side of the ship. He landed in the forest, maybe a tree broke his fall and he would be alive. "The Covenant are going to be all over the survivors if we don't do something. Maybe they have reinforcements too. Let's get to them and help out." Everyone agreed.
ODST Saga: Chapter 5
Date: 30 April 2002, 3:32 am
When we got back to HQ we unloaded the hover crate with the Elite Commander on it. Much to my puzzlement, General Harris himself greeted us. "Lt. Clower, my sincere apologies, we had no reason to believe the new engines would malfunction."
"Other than the fact that you hadn't even tested them yet, sir."
He was silent for a moment searching for words. "Robert, you and I both knew that when you made it into the ODST your current relationship status with Courtney was not ideal for the military for reasons such as this. You came to me and specifically asked, no, you were practically begging me to assign her as your squad's Dropship pilot. I shouldn't have agreed to it in the first place but I knew how much you two trusted each other so I signed off on it."
He was right, I knew what I was doing, I just didn't realize how badly it could turn out. Getting shot down is one thing, but to go out because of something so stupid as an engine malfunction was so frustrating to me.
"Lt. take some time to grieve and rest up" he motioned to my eyes "from the size of those bags under your eyes you could use a little bit of sleep. When you're ready report to my office; I have something for you and your squad."
"Yes, sir." I looked around the hanger in the direction of the hover crate. "What's gonna happen to our new friends." I asked.
"ONI has personal here to study the Covenant scientist, as for the Elite; ONI will most likely want to interrogate him as well, although probably at a different depth than the scientist. We will put them both in holding cells here on the base until ONI decides what to do with them."
"You might want to keep Corporal Andrews away from the Elite, I think they know each other and I'm sure they have a deep hatred for each other." General Harris looked puzzled but didn't ask for an explanation.
I went back to my bunker, showered, and put on fresh clothes. I laid on my bed pondering the day's events. How could something I loved some much be taken away just like that? I had experienced similar things with soldiers, friends I had fought along side but this time was different, she wasn't a soldier, she was a pilot. She wasn't supposed to be in any direct action, not like me at least. I slipped into a state of unconsciousness, I kept thinking about everything we had done together and I replayed entire conversations we had. How much time had passed? Hours? Days? It didn't matter, time isn't relevant, we all live and die, just at different times. There's that word again; time, what is it anyway? Courtney hadn't lived very long at all; she still had her whole life ahead of her. I fell asleep completely.
When I woke up I checked the clock, almost an entire 24 hours had passed, I had been asleep for around 23 hours and 30 minutes. I didn't want to get up but I remembered that General Harris had something to give me. I slowly sat up then stood and lost my balance. "I need to eat something." I thought.
I drank 2 pints of what was commonly known as "Vitamin Omega" it contained all the essential vitamins and minerals which came at a price; it tasted like shit. I brushed up and headed out for the General's Office.
The MP at the door asked for ID, I showed him and he escorted me to General Harris then closed the door behind him. "I trust you are rested up, Lt."
"Yes, sir I am. But I'm still not completely over it."
"That is understandable, it takes time. However I have something that might just cheer you up." He held out his open hand, in it were 4 Corporal shoulder patches one Sergeant patch and one Sergeant Major patch. "I think your men more than earned these." He said.
"Sir, this is perfect, they will be so excited when I give them these." I turned to walk out and give out the promotions to my squad when General Harris stopped me.
"You didn't think I would leave you out did you, Captain Clower?" I was stunned and speechless; finally I managed to ask.
"Sir?" He reached into his pocket and retracted a collar piece; it was 2 silver bars, the rank of Captain.
ODST Saga: Chapter 6
Date: 2 May 2002, 12:20 am
I was completely stunned by what had just happened; I had been promoted to Captain. What an honor. And the rest of my squad was receiving promotions also. This will definitely raise their morale. When I got back to the bunkers I told everyone to put on their uniforms and meet me outside in 30 minutes. They did so and fell in at attention. "Sir, are we going on another op.?" Asked Jonathan.
"No, I have something for you all." A puzzled look came over all of their faces. I walked down the ranks starting with Kevin. "Sergeant Kevin Stewart is receiving a promotion to Sergeant Major, nice job."
"Thank you sir."
I continued down the line. "Corporal Chad Gibbons is receiving a promotion to Sergeant. Privates Brett Wallace, Jonathan Harris, Alex Johnson and David Johnson are all being promoted to Corporals. Congratulation men, I'm proud of you all.
"Thank you, Sir!" They all shouted in unison.
"What about you, Lieutenant?" Asked Brett.
"That's Captain from now on." I replied.
We all went to the bar they had on the base and ordered a round of drinks when the sirens blared to life. "All units to defense stations, jump jet pilots get your engines warmed up. This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill. Capt. Clower report with your squad to General Harris's office immediately."
"Great just what we need." Said Chad. When we entered, General Harris Informed us that a Platoon of marines out on a scout mission reported a force of about 20 Covenant Special Ops. Grunts with Needlers and Fuel Rod Guns led by 2 Spec. Ops. Elites carrying Plasma Rifles about 30 KM from the base. Shortly after the marines ended the transmission HQ attempted to contact them but there was no reply, it is assumed they were spotted by the troops and were either KIA or WIA. Our task was to find the missing marines and neutralize any Covenant in the area.
We suited up and took the usual supplies, a combat knife in the left side holster, a pistol in the right side holster, a rucksack with ammo and we each took a med kit. We all carried MA5B's and shotguns. Jonathan decided that since he wouldn't be carrying the rocket launcher he would take 2 Lotus Anti-tank mines. "To celebrate our new promotions." He had said. I decided to take 2 spheres of Anti-infantry gas; it was called the Not so Silent Death, or NSD for short. It caused burning of the eyes, confusion, and it was flammable so it is often used to magnify the effects of small explosive devises such as grenades. Since I took the gas I told everyone to bring a gas mask in case the wind shifted. When we got to the Hangar I was pleasantly surprised to see that the new vehicle called a "Serpent" was being attached to the Pelican. The Serpent's design was originally suggested by Kevin and then refined and made possible by techs at a neighboring military base known as Delta HQ. The Serpent was a troop transport/assault platform; it was 3 times longer than a Warthog and was divided into four sections, which were segmented allowing it to bend when making a turn. Each segment had two wheels and a passenger seat on each side (excluding the back segment) which was completely enclosed by 6 inches of the same Polymer-Titanium armor that our suits had. Each side of the segments (excluding the back) had a 20mm chain gun, which could fire at a rate of 400 RPM. The front of the Serpent had two 25mm chain guns called "Fangs" which could also fire at a rate of 400 RPM. The front guns were controlled by the front passenger and could be turned independently of each other. The back of the Serpent could carry four people or supplies.
"Everyone ready?"
"Sir, yes Sir!" We got into the Pelican and as we were taking off the pilot introduced himself.
"Welcome aboard, my name is Lt. Eric Lewis, I'll be your Pelican drop ship pilot from now on, my call sign is Alpha 274, and I look forward to serving you Captain."
"Very good Lt. lets get going then."
"Roger, forward thrusters are coming online now." The Pelican rocked forward and we were off.
Everyone was silent; I attempted to break the silence. "Lt. Lewis, can we have some music?"
"Sure, what would you like sir?"
"How about something old, maybe Metallica's Garage INC album from back in the 1990's?"
"Damn sir, that is old, but sure I think we have that one."
"Thank you." Good rock music always helped me get psyched up for an op.
As we arrived at the DZ we immediately saw tracks and traces of Covenant troops. Many more than what had been reported by the missing marines. I even noticed several places that appeared to be from a hover tank passing over the ground. Were the marines gravely mistaken about the size of the Covenant force or had another larger force moved in? I didn't like it, too many unknowns to consider, first of all we needed to find the marines...or what was left of them. We hopped out of the Dropship, unhooked the Serpent and climbed in; Kevin drove while Chad took control of the Fangs. Brett, Alex, David, and Jonathan manned the sides and I got in the back. We drove around on the outside of a clearing, there were several craters in it, they had a glassy shimmer to them. I noticed something moving in a bush on the tree line. "Stop I think I see something." I hopped out and went to investigate the movement. When I got there I found five marines. They were heavily injured with broken limbs and/or plasma burns, one of them even had a chewed up gut from where some needles had impacted and exploded. He was coughing up blood and didn't look like he would live much longer. Two marines had dug a trench behind a large rock for extra protection. "Where is the rest of your squad Corporal and what the hell happened here?" I asked.
He saluted then said "we're all that's left, Captain. The remains of the others are in those craters out in the field. The Spec Ops troops had moved on and we were forming a plan of attack when we heard the shrill cry of Covenant Banshees and Hover tanks. Half of us were immediately killed by the Banshees' fuel rod guns. We feared another pass from the Banshees so we kept our eye on them; that's when we got jumped from behind by some Grunts and Jackals. In the confusion us 5 managed to escape to some cover without the Covenant finding us. But the others weren't so lucky, The Jackals and Grunts began to eat the crippled marines while they were still alive; it was horrible Captain."
I had seen Grunts and Jackals eat human corpses before but never live soldiers. That must be a horrible way to die, devoured by a bunch of alien creatures. "Don't worry, we're here to bring you back alive." As I got up to help carry the soldiers to the Serpent I saw a flash of light from the tree line on the opposite side of the clearing. I tried to track where the plasma bolt would hit, I looked over to the marine coughing up blood, the plasma struck him in the face and reduced his head to a charred stump. After that all hell broke loose. Plasma erupted from the tree line in front of us. We dove into the trench and took cover behind the boulder as the shrubbery around us was incinerated. The Spec Ops Covenant that had originally been reported by the marines emerged from the opposite tree line 300 meters away. "OK boys, looks like we got ourselves a tiny problem so lets fix it, Kevin drive the Serpent Chad man the Fangs, everyone else get in the sides and be ready to kill some Covs." I got in the back, took out a NSD sphere and got it ready to toss out the back to mop up what ever Covenant that didn't get killed by the six chain guns. Kevin ran over 2 Grunts, Chad killed 3 with the Fangs, the other 4 chain guns killed 2 each, a total of 13 Covenant dead. I did a quick count and there were around 7 Grunts left and 2 Elites. Kevin did a U-turn and made another pass through the group of Covenant. As he did, I armed the 5-second timer on the gas sphere and tossed it out the back. The gas sprayed out quickly and in a matter of seconds the mist concealed most of the grunts, showing only the tip of their methane tanks and the upper half of the Elites. The gas had no effect on the Grunts since they wore breathing devices so they didn't realize the danger they were in. I saw a flash of light inside the deadly flammable cloud followed by an explosion that rocked the Serpent. One of the Grunts must have attempted to fire his plasma pistol at us, it proved to be a fatal error; all that remained when the smoke and dust cleared was a black crater and a few arms and legs from the Grunts. "Kevin, swing around and let's pick up the surviving marines." I said. When the Serpent stopped I got out. Out of the 5 original surviving marines only one remained, the others had been killed by stray needles and plasma. The only reason the Corporal had survived was because he ducked down into his trench throughout the entire event. "Corporal do you realize that by your act of cowardice all of your squad is now dead?" I shouted. "You yellow-bellied son of a bitch! Get in the back of the damned Serpent!" He climbed into the back and we drove to the DZ, along the way he couldn't look me in the eyes. "Brett set me up a Comm. channel to Delta HQ, tell them it is urgent."
"Roger, link acquired, they want to speak to you sir."
It was General Eastward, the man in charge of Delta HQ. "General, Sir, this is Captain Robert Clower, we have spotted Covenant tanks, troops, Banshees, and possibly a Seraph fighter en route to Alpha HQ (our base). I request you send troops and support to help them defend against the Covenant invasion force."
"Jesus Christ. Ok Captain I am sending 150 troops, 3 Serpents, 2 Scorpions, 5 Skyhawks, and 2 Longswords to help defend against the Covenant. Good luck Captain."
"Thank you, Sir. Clower out." As we loaded into the Pelican I told everyone of the situation and about all the backup we were going to get. They were surprised that General Eastward would send so much support to Alpha HQ. Lt. Lewis lifted off and we rendezvoused along the way with the support from Delta HQ. This was going to be a huge battle.
ODST Saga: Chapter 7
Date: 23 May 2002, 1:41 am
I looked out the back of the Pelican at the fifteen other drop ships. Some had Serpents or Scorpions attached to them. The five Skyhawks and two Longsword Interceptors were patrolling on the edge of the group. I had never been in a battle group this large. General Eastward wasn't taking any chances. As time passed I began to get worried because there was no sign of the Covenant Invasion Force. I kept up hope that we would get there in time to help out Alpha HQ, it had been my home for the past five years. It wasn't looking good for us; the base wouldn't be expecting such a large attack. Back in the field I noticed tracks from ten Hover Tanks, maybe pulling Covenant troop carriers which could hold fifty to one hundred soldiers depending on the various species inside. There were also crater marks that indicated at least five Banshees although there were most likely four to five times more than that given the number of tanks. This was not good at all, if the one thousand marines, fifteen Skyhawks, five Scorpions, and the one Longsword got caught off guard by an enemy that large they wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.
Lt. Lewis came over the radio. "Sir I have some bad news, I'm seeing bright flashes of light on the horizon, I think the Covenant may have beaten us to HQ. I'll patch the vid. through to your HUD." Lt. Lewis got the link up. It was definitely The Covenant. The blue mortar blasts from the tanks and the green fuel rod shots from the banshees was unmistakable. I didn't see any Skyhawks engaged in the battle, either they hadn't gotten a chance to life off before the Covenant struck or they had already been shot down. Our Skyhawks and Longswords broke formation. Each Longsword fired 6 Archer Missiles; 12 Banshees were vaporized. Next the Skyhawks broke formation and attacked with their chain guns. The bullets ripped off Banshee wings and penetrated the tops of the crafts killing their pilots; 5 more Banshees went down. I counted the remaining Banshees; somewhere around 14 remained and turned their attention to the Skyhawks and Longswords, as did the tanks. 8 mortar blasts shot through the group of quarreling Banshees and Skyhawks, one Skyhawk was destroyed and another was heavily damaged, it got finished off by a Banshee. In the surge or mortar rounds the tanks killed 3 of their own Banshees.
As the enemy was distracted we made a landing without any initial casualties. However, the exiting of the Pelicans was a different story. It looked like the invasion at Normandy in World War II. Soldier's lives were being claimed by enemy fire almost immediately. There was 6 Plasma turrets along the West Side of the base where we had landed. The turrets were protected by portable shields, which made them hard to destroy without explosives. Problem solved: several squads hurled grenades at the turrets, a good deal of the grenades actually landed near to the turrets. A smirk came across my face as I watched the pilot's futile attempts to escape their fiery deaths. ::BOOM!!!!::
It was like a chain reaction; the turrets exploded in rapid succession. Several Grunts and Elites emerged from the west entrance but were quickly overwhelmed. We hadn't even gotten into the base and already lost 25 men to the plasma turrets.
"Marines, divide up I want 5 groups at 50 men per group except for the ODST that General Eastward sent. Then the rest of you are with me." I addressed the highest-ranking officer in each group; they were all Lt.s. I assigned codenames to each group. "My name is Captain Robert Clower and my squad will be known as Red Team. We will enter the from here on the West Side of the base." I walked to the nearest group. "Lt. your group will be known as Blue Team. You will enter the base from the north entrance." I moved on to the next group "and you, Lt. will be in charge of this squad which will go by Green Team. You will enter the base from the south entrance." And onto the final group. I recognized the Lt. leading the last group. "Ah, Lt. Baker, good to see you again."
"Thank you sir, likewise"
"Lt. Baker you will lead Gold Team, you and your men take the 4 Serpents and the 2 Scorpions along with all heavy weapons experts we have and assist in destroying the enemy tanks and Banshees. Once you are done with that patrol the perimeter for Covenant. Blue and Green teams are to radio back to me once they are at the entrances then wait for my signal to enter. The squad of ODST will be known as Silver Team, you secure the hangars."
"Yes, Sir!"
"Move it!"
Gold Team got into the vehicles, 5 per Scorpion, and 6 per Serpent. Blue and Green Teams double timed it along the north and south walls of the base.
"Blue leader here, we are in position."
"Green Team ready to go."
"On my mark enter the base, when you come to a fork in the hallway, split up equally to cover all paths...Now!" We ran down the hall splitting up when necessary. As I rounded a corner I ran into a Jackal, knocking him down and throwing his shield from his arm. "Whoops!" I said and put 3 pistol rounds in his chest, tearing through flesh and spilling blood. I got up and as everyone was catching up to me 5 more Jackals came running to aid their fallen comrade. "Shit get back around that corner!" I yelled. We hurried back around and as we did I was hit in the back by a plasma bolt. I stumbled to safety. My suit held up against the shot but I still felt some of the heat. "Arrrggg!' I cried out.
"Captain" shouted Brett "you've taken damage!"
"No shit, smart-ass." I snapped back "the suit is just a little hot from that plasma, I'm fine. Does one of you want to blow the shit out of those Jackals before they catch up to us?"
One of the marines stepped out, primed a grenade and tossed it at the aliens. One approached it, oblivious to what was about to happen. His luck ran out and the grenade exploded sending purple blood everywhere. I got up and we continued down the hallway towards the cafeteria. As we walked up to the doors which opened up into the dining area I could hear high-pitched grunts and barks. We entered with our ARs ready and searched around.
::CLANG::
"That sounded like it came from the storage area in the back room." Whispered Kevin
"Right." I replied. I made 2 hand signals for Chad and Kevin to cover my 6 while I investigated. Another hand signal told Brett to kill whatever came out of the door when I opened it. I opened the large metal door and Brett rushed in.
"Oh my God!" He yelled
"What is it?" I asked.
"The little bastards actually like the Vitamin Omega!"
I looked inside and 3 Grunts were passed out with empty cans of Vitamin Omega around them.
"Diieee! Sons of bitches!" Yelled Brett as he fired his AR at the helpless aliens. They didn't even bother to try and escape. The shredder rounds tore through their armor and hit the soft flesh underneath rupturing vital organs and sending blood and Vitamin Omega spraying everywhere. One of the Pvt.s that General Eastward had sent got sick at the site and lost it in the corner. It didn't even phase me; I had seen this for 10 years. After the Pvt was feeling better we checked the bodies in the dining area for survivors. No survivors, we took their ammo and grenades then exited back into the hall. We had reached the point where the Covenant and marines engaged each other in bloody combat. There were bodies all over the place, Human and Covenant alike. The bodies were like paint pallets and the floor and walls of the base were their canvas.
We passed several barricades upon which lifeless bodies were hanging. One Elite was badly injured but still alive. I put a 5 round burst of armor piercing rounds into his back. It looked like the Covenant had moved swiftly deep into the base towards the data banks and prison cells. We were almost to the center of the first floor. The data banks and prison cells were on the third floor, where presumably the Covenant were. The center of the base was sort of an information/directory station and it fed into the main hallways. There were 3 hallways unchecked for any Covenant or survivors. Brett and I went to secure one, Chad and Kevin went to another and Alex, David, and Jonathan checked the last one while the rest of the marines stayed behind in the room and waited. Out of the 25 marines that originally accompanied us 5 of them were with us now. The rest had split up, none had been killed. The lack of resistance inside the base was unnerving to me. I had seen 2 troop carriers and not enough bodies to account for 2 carriers full of troops. Green and Blue Teams should be checking in soon and I hoped they encountered the same lax resistance that we did.
"Aaahhh!" Screams from behind us followed by gun shots. Brett and I ran back to check on the 5 marines. 4 red armored Elites had surrounded them and by the time we got there the 5 Pvt.s were already dead. Kevin, Chad, Alex, David and Jonathan emerged from the hallways at the same time Brett and I did and opened fire. "Waste the bastards!" I shouted. Our bullets, while almost every one of them hit their mark, weren't doing damage quick enough. We backed up into the halls while laying down suppressive fire at our attackers. Jonathan took out his shotgun and had little trouble killing both of the Elites that followed him and the 2 brothers so he went and assisted Kevin and Chad. Brett and I however were having equipment problems. My gun jammed and Brett was out of ammo. We managed to take down the Elite's shields with our last few shots. It was now his turn to shoot at us. 5 plasma rounds hit me in the chest and burned through the suit, the 6th and 7th rounds connected with skin. I fell to my knees then to the floor writhing in pain. Brett reached for his pistol but a plasma shot welded it to his holster. He pulled out his combat knife and slashed the Elite across the belly. As he clutched his bleeding wound Brett shoved the entire 8 inches into the Elite's rib cage and then twisted it a full 180 degrees. The sound was a sickening cracking made by the ribs being wedged apart.
Chad got to us and took out his med kit. He administered some anti-burn balm to the spot on my chest where the plasma burned me. It did such a good job of relieving the pain; the same spot that had felt like a hundred white-hot pokers just moments ago only felt like minor sunburn now.
"Captain, your sternum and part of a few ribs are exposed; I'm going to cover up the spot with a patch of plastic putty. It should stop infection as well as provide a small amount of protection. Are you going to be ok?" He asked.
"Yes I'll be fine just give me a few seconds to catch my breath." When I got up I told everyone to drop their AR's and pick up plasma rifles since they would be more effective. Brett refused to swap his AR. Me, Chad, Kevin, and Alex picked up the dead Elite's plasma rifles. I flipped on my radio. "This is Red Leader, all of Red Team is to meet me at the information center right now, we will be moving down to the second floor; Armory, Experimental tech lab, and the indoor firing range. Blue team is to stay topside. Green Team is to rendezvous and go to the third floor and eliminate the Covenant there. Silver Team, what is your status?"
"No casualties, we have almost wiped out all the Covenant in this area."
"Good, once you're done stay there and prepare to take on human survivors."
As we waited the members of Red Team filed in. They had lost 5 men and all together we had suffered a total of 10 deaths, now there was 7 ODST and 15 marines remaining. We went down a flight of stairs to the second floor and made our way to the armory. We entered the armory and it looked like we had missed the action again. Bullet holes and plasma burned metal peppered the walls of the armory. Not very many bodies; 7 marines, 10 Grunts, and 2 Jackals. Several gun racks were tipped over and one had even crushed a hapless Grunt. We all swapped our plasma rifles for M90 Shotguns and picked up some ammo.
We left in despair; no survivors and things weren't looking good for the rest of the base's occupants. I wondered what happened to Corporal Andrews when the base got hit. He had always been lucky. While walking down the hall towards the tech lab we passed a spot where another battle had taken place. 2 of the bodies looked familiar, one was a Lt. and the other had a hole in her stomach. Oh God these were from J.D.'s squad. I searched the other bodies for him but had no success. Good, maybe he escaped. The next hallway would lead to the tech lab. The lab's doors should have sealed shut when the base was attacked but that most likely wont hold off the Covenant for very long. I told everyone to be ready to face a group of Covs at the door. Just as I thought, an Elite and 2 Hunters. The Elite was attempting to bypass security at one of the nearby control panels while the Hunters were simply trying to break down the door. "Jonathan do you still have those Lotus anti-tank mines?"
"Yea, right here."
"Arm one and put it on a 10-second timer then give it to me."
He did so and it took almost all of my strength to throw the mine down the hall. It bounced once and landed right in between the 2 Hunters who didn't even notice it. "Get your asses the hell away!" It's amazing how fast you'll run when there's an anti-tank mine about to blow up just down the hallway from you. The massive explosion rocked the building and several marines were flung to the ground. A whole minute passed before I decided to get up and go make sure the Hunters were dead, no doubt they would be. When the smoke and dust cleared there was a gaping hole in the floor and the door along with some of the wall it was attached to were completely missing. Several support beams in the floor were exposed. "I only want a few of us to cross those; they don't look too stable. Chad and Brett will come with me and the rest of you stay here." The metal was still hot; I could feel the heat through my boots. Inside there were several tables with seemingly normal weapons on them. A partially disassembled shotgun. Above it read "M90A Automatic Shotgun" There was also a strange pistol type gun but the label above it was distorted from debris hitting it and I couldn't see what its name was. A table without anything on it. The label above read "MA6B Assault Rifle." And on the other side of the room was something that caught my attention. It was the handle of a sword. The label above said "Prototype Plasma Sword." This was truly interesting, a human plasma sword. The scientist here must have back engineered the Covenant technology. The Covenant version was much feared by marines, especially ones that had wasted their ammo and were at the mercy of a Covenant Elite wielding one. The glass case it was in had been shattered by a chunk of the wall so I picked it up. No "On" button. I shrugged and made a last check over the room, so sign of any people. They must have escaped and locked the door. Too bad I couldn't figure out how to turn on the plasma sword, those fencing lessons at the UNSC academy would have come in handy if I encountered another gun malfunction.
"Ok, lets get out of here and check the firing range then see if Green or Silver Team needs any help." When I got across the makeshift bridge I thought I saw something out of the corner of my left eye. I looked nothing there. Then I realized what happened to that Elite who had been trying to crack the security system. "Everyone get down the hall and find cover." The Elite realized his cover had been blown so he charged at us. He moved like lightning and I didn't have my gun ready. I tried to turn and run but I tripped on some rubble. He was right over me and in a last ditch effort I closed my eyes and swung the plasma saber handle at him. I herd a sort of electrical buzzing sound followed by the sensation of a warm liquid splashing in my face. I opened my eyes and saw a pair of legs missing a torso, which had landed right next to me. A green beam was extended from the handle. So the plasma saber worked after all. "Whoa I didn't feel any resistance at all; it just sliced right through those shields and armor like nothing at all."
"Captain, that was the single coolest thing I have ever seen." Said Kevin.
I was stunned and finally managed to say "yeah, me too."
I gazed at the glowing blade for a moment marveling at the aura that surrounded this magnificent weapon. "How did I turn it on and how do I turn it off?" I tried several things and finally I squeezed the handle and the blade retracted. "Must be pressure activated." I mumbled "Ok, lets go check the firing range." We jogged to the firing range and walked through the blown down door. The range itself was dark so Kevin turned on the emergency floodlights revealing a dozen Grunts and half that many Jackals gathered around a body, feeding like vultures.
"Send them to Hell!" The resounding boom of 12 shotguns startled the aliens. 4 of them were impacted by the shells and torn apart. The Jackals never had a chance to turn on their shields and face us before being pelted by unrelenting shotgun fire. The gunfire lasted for 30 seconds; all the aliens were dead in only 15 but that didn't stop anyone from emptying their chambers. I turned on my radio and called for all teams to report.
"Blue Team here, we have found 7 survivors and haven't taken any additional casualties."
"Gold Team has taken heavy losses; we have found 2 survivors in bad shape."
"Gold Team reporting all Covenant tanks and Banshees eliminated. We lost a Scorpion and a Serpent and the other Scorpion has lost a tread but is still functional. One Longsword was destroyed the other suffered medium damage."
"Silver Team here, the hangar is all clear, we have a lot of survivors from around the base and we lost one man in the fight."
"Good job Teams, meet in the hangar."
When I arrived I learned the General Harris had been killed, his body was found in the command center with some survivors. The highest-ranking officer on the base now was Commander Wilkins. I had spoken with him before but I didn't really know him. He told us we were not permitted to leave the hangar until debriefing had been finished and he also said that ONI had a demonstration prepared for us; the MA6B. It took several hours before he even begun the debriefing which also lasted a few hours. When he was done 3 men in black suits came in with a large crate. They were ONI personal. One of the men holding an AR spoke. "Ok marines we have a little surprise for you. Can any of you guess what this is? No this isn't a MA5B, this is a MA6B. This is new. The MA6B fires 8.83mm rounds instead of the MA5B's 7.62mm rounds. The MA6B also has a longer barrel for accuracy and some silenced fire. The MA6B fires 8.83mm AP, Shredder, and the new type of bullet, which is an explosive tipped bullet or an EX, round. The EX rounds do more damage than the other bullets and have a greater affect against Hunter armor, not much though. One other thing about the MA6B is that it can also fire the MA5B's 7.62mm rounds." He lifted the gun and fired at a target completely destroying it. "Ok that is the end of our demonstration, we will assign the MA6Bs to their owners in ten minutes."
We were handed the ARs and a few clips of each kind of ammo. Personally I liked the shredder rounds best so I decided to try out the EX rounds later. I walked towards the wreckage of a Banshee and took aim. As I looked down the scope I thought I saw something move. It must have been nothing. I squeezed the trigger and the rounds cause purple blood to spray out from the air and an Elite's body fell to the ground. "Uh-oh." I said. Dozens of energy swords powered up all around the hanger. "Stealth Elites!" I shouted. "Look out!" Alien war cries resonated through the hanger and the glowing swords advanced towards the group of marines who began firing wildly. A few Elites went down but not many. The soldiers on the perimeter were cut down but the other marines opened fire close range and didn't miss. They became more organized and took smarter shots.
Brett had become isolated from the rest of the group by 2 Elites. Their swords danced around him, lashing out trying to inflict a lot of pain but not kill him yet. I couldn't get off a clear shot at them. Finally they became bored with their human toy and thrusted their blades into Brett's gut and ribs, lifting him off the ground several inches before withdrawing the swords and letting his limp body fall to the ground. "No!" I screamed as I let loose a barrage of shredder rounds separating their pitiful souls from their mortal bodies. I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder. One of the bastards was behind me. I reached for my sword handle and squeezed it as I turned to face my attacker. The blade sliced through the air and severed a cloaked Elite's stomach spilling its visceral mass onto the already blood stained floor. I followed up with a quick slash, which decapitated the beast. The base rocked violently as the hanger door was blown open revealing a small shielded Covenant ship, which deployed spec ops Grunts and Jackals and 5 Hunters. A Warthog engaged them but was overturned throwing out its passengers who seemed ok but were attacked by the Covenant troops who had just landed. "ODST break away from the fight and engage the troops. Load up your EX rounds if you haven't already done so." My squad and the other ODST broke away from the battle and fired their EX rounds at the behemoths. I was first to get there and also first to run out of EX ammo. I dropped my AR as a Hunter was preparing to squash a marine with its huge shield. One slash of the plasma sword cut through the shield, arm, body, and other arm of the Hunter. The other Hunters were badly hurt and eventually killed by the onslaught of the EX rounds. I noticed one of the marines was Cpl. Andrews. He was bandaged up and the patch of a Sgt. on his shoulder caught my eye. "Sergeant Andrews?"
"Yes sir that's right, Sgt. Andrews. I got a promotion not too long ago."
"So I see. Congrat-"
When I came too there was a sharp pain in the back of my head and an Elite soldier was holding me up as I lifted my head to look out the back of what appeared to be the Covenant ship. Marines were firing at it and I could see the flicker of its shields. "Where am I and what have you done with my men?"
"Shut your mouth, human!" Came the reply in a cold, deep, guttural voice.
"No, shit bag, answer me."
"Watch your tongue, Human! You and your 'Men' are going to various places. Some will be used in experiments; the others will be given a chance to fight for their lives."
I reached to my side holster for a knife or pistol or something. He laughed and said "do you take me for a fool? I have disarmed you but you will receive your weapons when you fight in the Coliseum for your life and for the amusement of the Royal Family and millions of other Covenant."
"Great." I mumbled as I slipped back into unconsciousness.
The End
CONTINUED IN "A Will To Survive"
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