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The Devil's Brigade by Spinks
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The Devil's Brigade Prt. 1 (Revised)
Date: 18 April 2003, 4:49 AM
Sorry, I was looking through my story and noticed that I missed a few things when I changed my perspective from third to first person. Hope you can enjoy this anyway.
Speed and strength were never my strong points, but I was smarter and fought with more dedication and heart than any other man in my squad. I graduated from the Marines science school with honors. I had a degree in nuclear physics and ballistics. I also grew up with guns, so I knew how to shoot them.
Being a sniper helped me avoid being killed, too. Using my SRS99C-S2 AM sniper rifle with an infrared/night vision scope with a silenced barrel and an extended trigger to compensate for my large hands and fingers. I had one of the best shots in the Corp. Before the Covenant threat went public, I would enter the Corp's shooting contests and blow everyone away.
I could have gone into intelligence, but I never had enough trust in people to utilize all of the information that I gave them correctly. So instead I decided that I would gather and utilize information.
The Covenant was chasing after me while I ran through the jungle on a strange planet. I was out of ammo in my SRS99C-S2 AM rifle, and running low on fragmentation grenades and ammo in my MA2B assault rifle. I needed all of the ammo and explosives I could use to hold off the Jackals on my tail.
I was sent with my squad to do a recon mission on an outer planet, just beyond where Harvest once was to see if it was suitable for colonization. What we found was not what we were hoping for.
20 years ago the Covenant launched an attack against the Earth. Millions of people died during the long and arduous battle, but when a SPARTAN showed up, it gave us the morale boost that we needed.
The SPARTAN had stopped the Covenant glassing for a while, and when he showed up on my ship with a captured Covenant Prophet, we knew that this war was almost over. But I had no idea that I would be stuck in the middle of it again.
It's amazing how you can daydream while running away from Jackals who are firing plasma at you. But when a plasma round takes out the tree that is right next to you, you tend to return to reality. The only advantage that you have is that the Jackals need to stop to shoot around the plasma shields that they were still waving around. Running and calling for help were your only options after you see your entire squad wiped out by an unflinching enemy.
"This is fire team Foxtrot requesting immediate assistance from any UNSC forces…does anyone copy over" I yelled into my radio
"This is UNSC cruiser Ticonderoga we read you, what is you position? Over." a voice came over the radio
"I am being tailed by approximately 50 covenant forces and I am running through the jungle." I boomed over the radio, "I am currently at 35°40'W 19°54'N and moving NNW at a speed of 8km/h and slowing. I am running low on ammo; need immediate dust off and medical attention. Over." I was getting scared that I would not survive.
"Affirmative. However, if you must change direction 38°W, you should come to a clearing in about 500 meters. A pelican will be there to pick you up in about 15 minutes. Over and out."
In 10 minutes I could be dead from covenant plasma, or worse. Pushing these thoughts out of my head, I kept running as fast as I could toward the clearing. I reached it in about 10 minutes, and the pelican hadn't reached the clearing yet, and the covenant had yet to break pursuit. I took my last two grenades and got ready to throw them. I saw a plasma pistol begin to charge through the darkness and dove to the side. The round took out a tree that was right behind where I had been standing. I pulled the pins out of the grenades and chucked them toward where I saw the blast of plasma come from. The grenades detonated and killed upwards 20 Covenant.
I pulled out my Night Vision Glasses, modified from the old goggles that were used so long ago. I looked toward the other end of the clearing. I saw the covenant Jackals disband as the Pelican landed. Before the drop ship even reached the normal boarding height I was on and ready to role. I wanted to get off of this God forsaken planet as soon as possible.
I was led into the Marine quarters where I got some rest. I had survived something that very few people had. I went face to face with Covenant Jackals and lived to tell about it. This was not an experience that I wanted to go through again, but I had a feeling that I had many more of these encounters to come.
The Devil's Brigade Prt. II
Date: 6 May 2003, 9:38 PM
I sat in the debriefing room quietly. It seemed more like an interrogation chamber than anything. It was a small square room made out of concrete with a single stool in the middle. A one way mirror was along one of the walls. It looked like one of the old rooms in the ancients "Cop Shows".
A distorted voice came over an intercom, "What were you doing down there Second Lieutenant?" It sounded like it was coming from all sides of me. However, I knew it was coming from a person behind the mirror.
"I was sent on a reconnaissance mission with the rest of my squad," I said as plainly as I could, "We were ambushed by Covenant about 2 kilometers from our objective. ONI had sent us to gather information on a former UNSC base that was under Covenant control." I didn't know why they had sent my squad and me, but when you're talking to an ONI official, you tend to do what you're told without questioning their motives.
"Do you know that you are the only survivor reported?" the voice came back over the intercom.
I had a feeling that no one else made it out, but I didn't want to believe it "No," I said, fear beginning to creep into my voice. I took a deep breath and continued, "I mean, I didn't think that any one else made it, but I wanted someone else to come home."
"Why didn't you call for support when you were first attacked?" the voice was no longer distorted. It sounded oddly familiar though, like it was someone from a distant memory.
"I don't know, I guess I was too busy trying to fight back and survive." By this point I was breathing heavily and starting to sweat. I feared that they would blame me for my squad dying and kick me out.
After a few seconds the mirror disappeared and a tall man stepped out. He stood a little over 2 meters and weighed about 100 kilos. He looked like a SPARTAN but there was one major difference, he had an SOG patch on his chest, not the Eagle that the Spartans wore.
"Congratulations," he said with a hint of excitement.
"What do you mean?" I asked. I couldn't figure out what I had done to get congratulated for.
"You have been selected to join a top secret SOG known as the Devils Brigade." The man replied. "My name is Colonel James Murphy; I'm the leader of the Devils Brigade. You were selected because of your intellect and skills with a rifle." Murphy had a deep voice that was very soothing in a way.
"So I am now in a top secret SOG. What if I don't want to join?" I said with a kind of sarcastic tone.
"You will be court-martialed for allowing your entire squad to perish and will be prosecuted to the full extent of UNSC code law." Murphy was now smiling like he wanted me to refuse.
"When do I start?" I asked, the fear of being imprisoned, or possibly even executed was not something that I was looking forward to.
"We are in Slipspace en route to our objective right now, I will see you on the bridge in 1 hour for orientation and briefing for our first mission. This won't be a huge mission, but it will give us an understanding of how the squad works together." Murphy looked at me and I gave him a crisp salute. Murphy turned on his heel and began to walk away. "Oh, by the way Hawk," Murphy turned and looked at me, "You have also been promoted to first Lieutenant."
"Thanks," I said with a big smile. I gave Colonel Murphy one final salute. He returned it and walked out of the room.
I stood in the room a few more seconds and then thought "What did he mean by 'us,' and why were we meeting on the bridge if we were such a top secret squad?" I gave up on these thoughts and went back to my quarters to clean my rifle. I sorted out the pieces and set them in their designated spots in the case that I was provided by a member of the Ticonderoga's crew had brought to me, since I had left mine on another cruiser.
An hour later I was up on the bridge with 5 other people. Each of them had a different specialty including stealth, demolitions, heavy artillery, Aircraft, and Rifleman. I was the Sniper and nuclear specialist.
The other members were all heavily decorated, covered in scars from plasma burns and grunt claws. I felt out of place. I had only been pursued by covenant once, and only fought them a few times before. But these people looked like they belonged in coffins being propelled out into space covered in the UNSC flag.
"So how did you die?" one of the soldiers asked me. He had a thick German accent, and judging by how he looked, he was most likely the heavy munitions man.
"What?" I asked, completely puzzled by his question
"Well, each one of us is officially KIA by Covenant within the pas week." The man continued, "I officially died in a trench two days ago on Cart with the rest of my squad."
I began to understand, so the reason that I was selected was not because I was the best, but because I was good and expendable because I was already dead.
"I guess I died down on Jericho IV last night while running away from a squad of Jackals."
After I finished Murphy walked in. "You all know why you're here, to aid the UNSC with Special Black Ops and rescue missions. You have been selected because you are not only the best at what you do, but also because you're dead."
Everyone started to cheer like they were truly proud that their families would be getting a letter from ONI saying that they were dead, even though they continued to fight against an unbeatable enemy.
"Well, its time for orientation, I know who you are, and you know who I am, but do you know each other?" Murphy looked around the room and his eyes fell on me "Lieutenant Hawk, tell me who you are and what you do. Then the rest of you follow him."
I stood, "Sir, my name is 1st Lieutenant Benjamin Hawk UNSC Marine Corp. I have a doctorate in Nuclear Physics from the marine academy, and I am an expert with the SRS99C-S2 AM sniper rifle. My code name was Hawk Sir!" I sat down and waited for my next orders.
The man next to me stood, he was much larger than any of us. "Sir, my name is Mater Gunnery Sergeant Ivan Holzen UNSC Marine Corp. I am a Heavy artillery man. My codename is Ox Sir! I am a master of the Jackhammer rocket launcher, as well as the M41 LAAG chain gun on the back of the warthogs"
Next was a woman. Her eyes were a very dark green; she looked like she should be modeling clothes, not fighting a war. She was tall and moderately thin, built like a runner. "Sir," her voice was soothing to me. It was like I was in a dream, not a ship. Her accent was Russian, "My name is Master Sergeant Tatiana Cheznik UNSC Marine Corp. I am a demolitions expert, and utilize the C-12 explosives. My codename is Rabbit because I get in fast, fuck 'um and get out even faster Sir!"
After Petra came the smallest man in the group. Although that doesn't mean that he was small by any means. He stood up and said, "Sir, my name is 2nd Lieutenant Antonio Vasquez UNSC Marine Corp. I am a master in stealth. I utilize the MA2B assault riffle equipped with a silencer. My codename is chameleon because I blend in everywhere Sir!"
Next was a man that I thought I had seen before, but I couldn't put my finger on it. War had a funny way of covering up good memories with horrific ones. "Sir, my name is Captain Andrew Pinson UNSC Marine Corp. I run the Crafts, fly's or hovers, Covenant or Human, I can utilize it. My codename is Condor Sir!"
Next was the most athletic looking one, his eyes looked cold and dark. He had more scars than all of the others combined. He also seemed to have the most combat experience. "Sir, my name is Major Andrew Shaw UNSC Marine Corp. I am a master of the MA5B Assault Rifle. My codename is Cobra, I was also the squad leader of my last platoon Sir!"
As I digested all of the information I realized that everyone but Ox had graduated from the academy. But that didn't mean that Ox wasn't something to fear.
"Well I see that everyone has some sort of education from the Marines, Except Ox, who was raised by wolves." Everyone started laughing, including Ox. "Well, we've all had our laugh," Murphy chimed in, "But lets get down to business."
A holo pad came on and we saw a planet form. "This is our objective, secure this UNSC base which is currently being held by Covenant forces." The holo projection began to rotate and a magnified view of what looked like an ordinary hill, except for the fact that there were five large holes that looked like they were buildings. "We got a distress signal from this building here." The projection zoomed in to the center building. "Under this building is a secret basement, that as of yet, we don't think that the covenant has breeched, but we still cannot hesitate. Recon says that the base is guarded by mainly by Jackals and Grunts. There are approximately 20 Marines and 10 scientists hiding in the basement, this will require 2 pelicans that will transport you and the hostages back here.
"Condor, your mission will be to provide air support in one of the Longsword solo aircrafts. Hawk, you will cover the team and the pelican from the edge of the base." I nodded in Acknowledgement. "Cobra, Ox, and Rabbit, you will secure the basement and rescue the soldiers. The door is reinforced with titanium-a armor and the key panel was destroyed when the door was locked. So you'll need to blow it with about ½ kilo of C-12 on the locks. After you secure the area, two pelicans will meet you at LZ-2. If you run into any snags, re group and report in from a safe area. From there I will give you new orders. Any questions?" Murphy looked around after concluding his speech. "Ok you have 20 minutes to get gear and meet me in hangar bay A-9. Dismissed."
I ran to the elevator and went to the armory. I found an SRS99C-S2 AM rifle and grabbed a handful of clips. I also grabbed an M6D pistol as a secondary. Cobra grabbed his MA5B assault rifle, and an M90 shotgun. Condor got a MA2B assault rifle in case he had to bail out. Ox grabbed a Jackhammer and an M90 shotgun. He also grabbed about 10 grenades and hung them from his belt. Rabbit grabbed about 3 kilos of C-12, much more than she needed, but I think that she hoped she could blow up a few more things than just the locks. She also picked up an MA5B assault rifle. Chameleon was traveling the lightest. He grabbed an M6D pistol with a silencer and a couple grenades. We all grabbed our field packs, which were stuffed full of survival gear, and left for the hanger.
We walked through the hanger toward the pelican. As soon as we got there, Colonel Murphy came up to us.
"Squad," he yelled. "You may want to put these on."
A cart rolled up behind the Colonel. It was filled with state of the art helmets with miniature screens on them, and armor that looked like it could stop bullets from point blank range. "These will be your new armored suits. They are made with a new type of titanium found on an outer colony, and was synthesized with Covenant weapon material. It is a more human operable version of the MJOLNIR armor that the SPARTANs wore. Dr. Halsey's protégé built them."
"Sir," I said, "I thought that the MJOLNIR armor was far too powerful for anyone that had not undergone the special training could handle?"
"Yes," Murphy answered. "But like I said, it is a special variation of the MJOLNIR armor. It uses a shield that is only activated by the Covenant plasma and needler rounds. It is the most sophisticated system ever developed.
"We can thank the last SPARTAN soldier for making this possible. As you know, he captured a Covenant Prophet and we figured out how to counter the plasma." Murphy concluded his speech as the techs finished strapping on the armor. It looked exactly like the old marine armor that they had worn before, but with one major change. The color of the armor was pitch black and had a picture of a dragon on the chest.
"As you know, the plasma rounds emit a certain type of UV rays, the hundreds censors in the suit are activated by this type of ray and turn the shield on. We haven't worked out all of the quarks yet, so you may still get a burn if you get hit. The gloves are specially designed so that you can still fire weapons normally." Murphy finished his speech as we were getting in the pelican.
I figured that I would rather just believe the Colonel about the armor then ask him how it worked. Besides, I doubt I could have understood it anyway. This was way beyond my field of study.
I saw Condor fly out in his Longsword before we left in the pelican. Our new radio microphones were about the size of my thumb, and sat right over my vocal cords, strapped on by a black piece of elastic-5 tape. I was relieved that I had the new armor, but I hoped that I would never have to test it in the field.
The Devils Brigade Prt. III
Date: 6 May 2003, 10:37 PM
The engines of the Pelican fired up as we left the hanger. They were much quieter than I had remembered. My guess was that they had installed those new engines specially designed for stealth missions that I heard about.
I was sitting in my chair shaking the whole way to the objective. I didn't know if it was from the pelican or some sort of nervous tick. All I do know though is that this was it. I was going back into battle, right after I "died."
"Ok, were here. Hit it marines!" the pilots voice was booming over the radio.
I was the first to jump out of the Pelican. I secured the area with my sniper rifle and signaled to the others that it was go time.
"This is Condor," I heard him like he was in my head thanks to the new helmets, "there are approximately 50 grunts and 30 Jackals. I also spot 1 Hunter right by the door. I can't get a clear shot at him though. Over."
Great, a hunter would make this really interesting.
As I knelt, I felt something stab into my leg. I reached into my pocket and found a Hunter designated round in my pocket. I had completely forgotten that it was in there from the last mission. I had so little time between the two missions, that I didn't have any time to empty my pockets.
Only one Marine other than a SPARTAN had ever been confirmed killing a hunter. The only way to kill one of these things was either with a SPARTAN, or a single shot to the back where their armor doesn't cover them. But this would still require you to see his back, which is very difficult if he's standing in a doorway.
"Colonel, we have encountered a snag." Cobra said over the radio.
"I know," the Colonel came back. "I can hear all of your transmissions. Ok, here are you new orders. Condor will carpet bomb the area, killing as many of the Grunts and Jackals as he can. This should draw the hunter out. Hawk, you will be hiding out to the right of the door, about 500 meters away in the trees. When the hunter comes out, Condor will try to draw his fire. Now, this is very important, you must shoot before he does. Condor's Longsword may not be able to evade in time."
"Yes Sir." We all said at the same time.
I started to run towards the base. I was about 550 meters away from the base when Condor began his assault. I continued to run until I caught up to the others. I pulled out my rifle and searched for the door. I was a little out of range so I moved toward it. Right as I did, the hunter ran out. He brought up his shield and took aim. Before he could even get his hand on the trigger I found his weak point and fired. My specifically designed hunter rounds tore through his body like a hot knife through butter. Orange blood exploded out of his back and sides. He stumbled a little and then straightened. It didn't kill him!! He turned toward me and started searching for where my shot had come from. Behind him I saw the vapor trail from a jackhammer rocket. It struck him square in the back blowing him to pieces and sending his armor up into the air.
"Thanks Ox!" I yelled over the radio
"Just doing my job, what the hell happened?" Ox sounded about as confused as possible.
"I don't know, it looked like a perfect shot, I thought it struck him right in the back." I sounded as confused as Ox.
"Well if that's true," Cobra said, "then maybe your not as good as you thought you were."
I felt like I didn't need to dignify that with a response. Besides, it would only make things worse.
I looked through my scope and saw a single grunt running in circles and barking. I took him out with a single shot before continuing.
"What the hell was that?" Cobra asked.
"Just taking out a Grunt Sir." I replied
"Don't ever shoot without my permission again," Cobra was now yelling at me. "You get me Lieutenant!?"
"Yes Sir." I replied with as little sarcasm as possible.
We continued into the building. I noticed Jackal tracks going in, and none coming out.
"Cobra," I was whispering now incase there were Covenant hiding somewhere.
"What do you want now Hawk?" Cobra asked, about as arrogantly as possible.
"Look at these tracks, I think something may still be in here." I replied.
"Bull shit, you're just scared." Cobra was now getting on my nerves.
When we came around the next bend, I saw about 15 Covenant Grunts and Jackals trying to figure out the lock on a door. I signaled to Ox for a grenade. Looked over one more time, pulled the pin and rolled the grenade right in the middle of the bastards. It took out most of them in the initial blast. Chameleon and Cobra ran in and finished off what was left of them with their assault rifles.
We moved toward the door and helped Rabbit set her charges on the locks.
"If anyone in there can hear me, this is a UNSC search team, were going to blow the door so stand back," Cobra was yelling at the top of his lungs.
We all took cover a safe distance away. Rabbit blew the charges and the door fell over. We moved down the ramps into the basement with weapons up ready for anything, except for what we found.
Everyone that was in the basement was dead. No, slaughtered is more like it. Blood was oozing all over the floor; bodies were mangled and burned by plasma. Half of them looked like they were trampled or shredded by Hunters. Some were covered in teeth and claw marks from Grunts.
"Those stupid Covenants weren't trying to unlock the door; they were locking it, to keep us as vulnerable as possible." I said, almost barfing at the sight.
All signs pointed to trap, but nothing happened. This made it even worse. I don't hate anything more than a trap that isn't triggered.
We ran to our extraction point at LZ-2. Boarded our pelican and returned to the Ticonderoga.
The Devils Brigade Prt. IV
Date: 12 May 2003, 2:16 AM
Colonel Murphy was in the hanger waiting for us when we arrived.
"What the hell happened down there!?" He yelled at us.
"Sir," Cobra, said stepping forward, "It was an ambush, everyone was already dead. They wanted us to come down there so they could slaughter us. My guess is that they were hoping for a SPARTAN to show up so they could get a little revenge, Sir."
"Very well, I want you to meet me in the debriefing room right now Hawk, dismissed." Murphy didn't sound very happy.
We gave him a quick salute, and he returned it before leaving.
I went to the same debriefing room as before, but the mirror was gone, and was made from the normal metal now. I could see straight through to Colonel Murphy. There was even a new stool in the room. This time it had a back that I could rest against.
"Tell me what happened down there Hawk?" Murphy had a strange tone to his voice, one of sheer disappointment, almost like he blamed the team for what happened to the people.
"Sir, we went into the base and came across a hunter. I used a round that I found in my pocket to take him out, but it failed. So Ox hit him with a Jackhammer round.
"We continued into the building and came across the basement. We traveled down the ramps, and," I paused; the sight of the bodies, it would haunt my nightmares for weeks. "Inside were the bodies of around 30 people, all o them were dead." I trembled as I talked about the people. Their faces, well at least the ones I could see that weren't crushed and torn, were still full of fear.
"Sir," I said.
"Yes Hawk," he replied
"Why were we really down there?" I asked, hoping that we were actually there to save lives.
"You were sent to stop a major Covenant offensive." He answered.
"Sir?" I replied.
"There was no distress call. We knew that they were all dead. We just could not afford to loose what the scientists were working on down there." The Colonel sounded like he had something lost in this mission.
"What was it?" I asked.
"That's classified. I also hope that you understand you cannot divulge any of this information to the rest of the squad." Murphy was especially serious now.
"Yes sir." I replied. I knew that this would cause disunity between me and the squad if I kept this information from them, but I could not disobey my commander's orders.
I exited the debriefing room to see Ox waiting for me. He looked like he had something he needed to tell me.
"Hawk, I need to talk to you," he said in a near whisper.
"Why?" I asked
"I found something in the basement that I need you to look at." He replied.
"What is it?" I asked
"Come with me." He said
He led me back to our quarters. Everyone else was either in the showers or the debriefing room. He reached into his field pack and pulled out an id card.
"Do you recognize him?" he asked
He showed me the ID. It was Jason Cane, my Geology professor from the Marine academy.
"Yes," I said, "That's my old professor. We had to study geology to understand some of the reactions that nukes had on certain rocks. It becomes really important to know how effective your bombs will be on the enemy."
"Da, I also found this." He pulled out a rock and handed it to me.
"Have you told the Colonel yet?" I asked
"No, I wanted to see if you knew what it was first." He said
"I have no clue, but whatever it is I think that it was what we were sent to secure." I said. "Here let me take it. I'll go to the Colonel about it. Don't worry, I wont tell him who gave it to me."
I took the rock and walked back to the debriefing room with it in a satchel. I walked into the waiting room and waited for the Colonel. After about 15 minutes he came out.
"Sir," I said, "I think I have what you want."
"What do you mean?" he asked
I pulled out the rock and gave it to him. He looked at me confused.
"I found it in my field pack." I said.
"Why didn't you tell me you had this?" he asked. "You could be court-martialed for withholding information during you debriefing."
"I didn't know that it was in there." I said, "Someone must have put it in there hoping I could identify it. As of yet my best guess is that it is a piece of something a Covenant dropped. I also found this." I handed him the ID tag. "Why was he here?" I asked.
"Walk with me Hawk." He said as he began to walk toward the elevator. "This was no ordinary mission; it was an op to secure the base for future research."
"Research on what?" I asked
"This rock was taken off of a covenant cruiser that the SPARTAN had secured during the invasion of the Earth. It is a piece of Covenant Home World. The covenant was there to secure it and destroy all record of it. And you did your job, you got the rock back."
"Why this squad of veterans? You could have used any ordinary marine platoon." I said.
"No, we couldn't. you were brought in because we still need you." He replied.
"For what?" I asked.
"You need to commandeer another cruiser and fly to the Covenant Home World. There are also more rock samples that we believe the Covenant may try to secure." He said. "We need to get as much information on these things as possible to completely wipe them out. Those scientists were chosen to build a bomb that would react to the rock, taking out the entire planet."
"What about the SPARTAN?" I asked.
"I'm getting to that." He replied. "You need to get ready to go on another rescue mission. SPARTAN-117 was taken hostage 3 hours ago. You and your squad need to be ready to move in 1 hour. We will be coming out of Slipspace in about 20 minutes. The planet is called Fortress by the Covenant. I am also making you new squad leader."
"Sir, respectfully, I am not a born leader. I appreciate the offer, but I think Cobra is a much better leader than me." I replied.
"Yes, but the men seem to like you better, they get along with you. They trust you. You need them, and they need you. Cobra is full of himself in the field he is arrogant. You are the new Squad leader." He finished his talk as we reached the bridge.
"Sir," I said, "I require one thing."
"What's that?" He asked.
"Why Me? Why did you chose me for this position?" I asked.
"I know you," he said. "You are one of the best soldiers that I have ever met. You fought with a Jackal hand to hand once right?"
He startled me when he said this. I had thought for so long that no one had known that.
"Yes." I replied.
"You fight with heart." He said, "You fight with cause; your dedication is to the mission, nothing else. Not even yourself. This is a quality widely missed these days."
He said things that made me proud of myself. Pride was one thing that I had not felt since I joined the corp. I was defeated again and again, but would never accept it. I guess I did have a cause.
"You will accept this mission then?" he asked
"Sir," I stood up tall with a salute. "Yes Sir!"
I couldn't believe it, I was a true soldier now. I left the bridge and went back to my quarters. I found the squad waiting for me. As I began to walk toward my bunk, Murphy came down the elevator behind me.
"Officer on deck!" Cobra yelled.
We all stood and saluted Colonel Murphy as he walked in.
"At ease soldiers." He replied. "I have some good news and some bad news. Major Pinson." Cobra stood up, "You are now a first Lieutenant." Cobra sat down angry. "Lieutenant Hawk." I stood "You are now Major Hawk and squad leader. That is all." Colonel Murphy left the quarters after his speech.
After he left Ox came up to me and shook my hand. "Good work Major." He said with a smile.
"Thank you Ox. I hope I can be as good a leader as Cobra was on this past mission." I replied.
I walked over to cobra and sat down across the table from him.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"I want to apologize." I replied
"For what?" he asked. "Taking my job or insulting my honor."
"Both I guess," I said, "But I guess were trading places than?"
"Yea, good luck Major." He said
"Thank you Lieutenant." I replied
The Devil's Brigade Prt V
Date: 26 June 2003, 6:48 AM
The trip to where the last signal from the Master Chief was registered took 3 days. I had to take tranquilizers so that I could get to sleep. The nightmares from the last mission were still haunting me. So many bodies, so many faces staring at nothing, with looks on their faces of pure fear.
When we arrived near the planet, I ran through the armory grabbing everything I could carry. My pack was filled with explosives and extra rounds. I had 6 grenades on my belt and even more in the pack.
The briefing was fast, go in, kill everything that moves, and retrieve the master chief. It seemed simple until we got ready to move. Murphy was in the hanger when we got there.
"Well I have some bad news for everybody, the Spartan is dead, his body was jettisoned out into space by a Covenant cruiser, it was picked up on our radar 30 minutes ago and a team just recovered it.
"This means that there is no longer a rescue mission," Murphy continued. "It is now an attack on a covenant ship."
"What the hell do you mean?" Cobra asked.
"Yeah," Rabbit said, "Why are we attacking a covenant ship?"
"Because we are going to fly it straight to where it came from, and blow the hell out of it," I said.
"Very god Hawk," Murphy replied. "As you know, the grunts wear those stupid suits because they need methane to breathe, now we discovered some time ago that all of the other races besides the Grunts were, in fact, oxygen tolerant, which is why they don't need the special suits. But in the rock that Ox found, we discovered high traces of Methane.
"Now what were going to do is take the cruiser, and fly it straight into these ass holes shitty planet, and blow the hell out of it."
"By dropping a single nuke, and letting the methane rich atmosphere do the rest." I added.
"Exactly," Murphy replied. "Now there is a very good chance that none of you are going to be coming back, but, for those of you who do, you will be rewarded better than anyone who has ever walked on the face of the earth."
I went back to the armory after Murphy finished his speech. Taking control of a covenant cruiser was going to be nearly impossible. But I made sure that I had the right equipment. I ditched my sniper rifle for a pistol, and grabbed an assault rifle as well. The sniper clips in my pack got tossed as well as some of the explosives that I had. After about five minutes of grabbing and packing supplies I returned to the hanger.
Everyone else grabbed pretty much the same stuff, except for Ox, he had grabbed a rocket launcher, and even tried to take the LAAG gun off of a warthog, but decided that it would be too much to carry. Instead he grabbed a 30mm cannon that was on one of the smaller LRVs that were used for recon missions. Ox also had about 1000 rounds in his pack for the gun. All on one chain that fed directly from his pack into the gun, eliminating the need to reload.
I had a bad feeling about this mission, but there was nothing that I could do about it, no matter what I thought, the ends of succeeding in this mission far outweighed what would happen if we failed.
When we all got to the hanger, Murphy showed us what we would be using as transportation on this mission, the Helljumpers HEVs, which would be fired like torpedoes at the covenant cruiser.
Fortunately, the MAC gun would be fired before us, so the shields should be down, allowing us to get onto the hull, but even from there it was tricky. Each one of us was given a special suit that fit over our armor, it wasn't much, but it gave us 30 minutes of air to work with. Murphy was wearing the same suit as we were, which only ment one thing, he was going, too.
"Ok," Murphy said as he showed us our transportation, "Here is the plan. We will all launch at the same time, as soon as we get within ten meters of the ship, we blow the hatch on our HEVs and latch ourselves to the cruiser. Rabbit will then place as many explosives as she can on the hull, and blow a hole in it big enough for all of us to fit through.
"We will then proceed directly to the bridge where Ronin, the AI that we are taking with us, will use the controls to find the covenant home world and fly us straight into it. Are there any questions?"
"Yeah," Condor asked, "What the hell am I doing?"
"You," Murphy replied, "Are going to make sure that none of the covenant planes try to take out Rabbit and the rest of us while were on the hull of the ship."
"Then what?" Condor asked.
"Then you can either fly back to the Ticonderoga and Watch and listen, or fly into the loading bay and join us."
Murphy replied. "We will open up one of the cargo bay doors so that you can fly in, this will also suck out the opposition in the cargo bay. We will then close the doors, and you can get up and join us."
"I have a question sir," Chameleon said.
"Yes," Murphy replied.
"How do we keep fro getting sucked out too?" Chameleon asked.
"Your shoes are designed to latch on to the ground when you press that little button on the top of your foot, that should keep you from joining the Covies in their space walk." Murphy replied.
"Anything else?" Murphy asked.
"Yeah," I replied. "How do we get back home?"
"Well, if there are any of you left after we take the cruiser, and you don't want to go with the ship to the Covie home world, then you can take one of the aircrafts that are still intact."
We climbed into our HEVs and got loaded into some makeshift torpedo tubes. The nuke that we were going to plant on the cruiser was tiny, about the size of a deck of cards, but it packed enough punch to take out the Covenant home world.
Murphy carried Ronin with him, I only prayed that I would make it aboard the Covenant ship alive, leaving wasn't something I thought that I would be doing.
Minutes after we got into our HEVs and were loaded, Murphy came over the COM channel and said that we would be getting launched shortly.
I could feel the MAC gun fire, and then seconds later I felt my HEV launch. I read the monitors carefully, and as soon as they read ten meters, I blew the hatch and landed on the cruiser, it worked perfectly.
The Devil's Brigade prt VI
Date: 26 June 2003, 5:15 PM
All of us landed on the cruiser and latched on, Rabbit went to work on the explosives. Condor made laps around us, keeping an eye out for covenant ships. Within the time it took Rabbit to plant the explosives, Condor had taken out three enemy ships.
"Ok," Rabbit said over the com channel, "Its fire time!"
We all crawled down the hull to a minimum safe distance, and rabbit blew the charges. However, Rabbit didn't get far enough away and was blown with the hull and launched into space screaming.
"Rabbit!" I yelled.
"There's nothing you can do now hawk." Cobra said.
We got inside of the ship and through the first airlock. Ronin opened a COM link and led us the loading bay. We fought off light resistance on the way, but were met with hordes of Covenant when we reached the loading bay. I clicked on the traction control for my boots and opened a door. Most of the Covenant was sucked out immediately and condor was in almost instantaneously. I closed the door and watched condor get out.
"Condor," Ronin said, "There is a door to your right, it leads to a ramp that will take you up here."
Almost as soon as condor opened the door he was met with a fuel rod round that blew a hole in his chest large enough for a frying pan to fit through.
"NO!" Ox yelled as he began firing his huge weapon at the Hunters that emerged from the door. Even with their thick armor, they were no match fro the huge bullets that Ox had at his disposal.
We passed through some resistance from Elites and Jackals as we approached the bridge, but nothing major, nothing like what we had expected. But when we got closer we found the rest of the bastards. Ox fired madly with his cannon and mowed down line after line of Grunts, Jackals, and Elites. But he met his demise when a Hunter got in the mix. Ox got cut in half by the monsters gigantic spines. We all fell back as ox used the last bit of his strength to fire a rocket right into the back of the beast, blowing both of them up.
Now all that was left was Cobra, Chameleon, Murphy, and me. After a short period of mourning we decided to charge in with guns blazing. As the airlock door opened the first thing that we saw was the second hunter prepared to fire. We all hit the deck and started to fire. Fortunately a grunt behind the hunter panicked and shot the hunter in the back with a fully charge plasma round, killing him instantly. I grabbed two of the grenades that I had off of my belt and lobbed them into the horde of Covenant. Almost all of them flew through the air as the explosives detonated.
The last of the defenses were mopped up by automatic fire from our MA5B rifles. From there we moved on to the bridge, as we opened the door, all we saw was on gold armored elite with a plasma blade. After taking him out Cobra stood up and started to walk forward. Out of nowhere he was struck by round after round of plasma.
"Shit!" I yelled, "They got camo."
"Don't worry," Ronin said as we fired mindlessly into the bridge. "Your masks have thermal sensors in them, just say the word thermal and they should come on."
As if cued by a director we all yelled "Thermal" at the same time and were rewarded with heat signatures. We Opened fire and cleaned up the rest of the Elites that were in the room.
Murphy walked over to the controls and plugged in Ronin. A samurai figure appeared by the control panels. "Ok," Ronin said, "I have acquired the target coordinates and am plotting a course. Done, now if you like I can open some doors for you guys to get out and then lock down this area so that no one can mess with me."
"Are you sure that it will work?" Murphy asked.
"Hey are you questioning me?" Ronin said.
"No, I just want you to be sure that no matter what the covenant do, they wont get in here and keep us from completing the mission." Murphy replied.
"Don't worry," Ronin said, "Right now there is absolutely no way that the covenant could change the course even if they wanted to. I have changed the security protocols for the ship, in order to change a course I have to approve it."
"Well then lets leave." I said.
"Yeah." Chameleon agreed.
"Before we go," Murphy said, "Lets see if we can take the covenant camouflage and slip through unnoticed for once."
It was a good idea, but unfortunately there was only on unit that worked, and none of us wanted to be the only one to use it. Ronin opened an airlock door and we began to move out. Still expecting covenant we never let our guard down, and kept our thermals running.
We made it back to the cargo bay without running into any resistance at all. We carried the remains of our fallen comrades, atleast, the ones that we could find, Rabbit and Ox were completely gone. Before we reached the cargo bay, I turned to Murphy.
"How will we know if Ronin succeeded or not?" I asked.
"Ronin is going to send the coordinates of the Covenant home world back to the Ticonderoga, and we are going to follow him. Then after we see whether or not we have succeeded in our mission, we will jump back out into space and pray that nothing follows us, or kills us while we wait for the ship to blow up." Murphy replied.
"Great." Chameleon said.
As we rounded the corner we came across a couple of elites with plasma swords. They had their backs to us though, which gave us the advantage. After a few short bursts from our rifles they were all dead.
As we reached the shuttle bay, we ran into more elites with plasma swords. We fought as hard as we could. Chameleon was the first to go. One of the elites stabbed him through the chest.
I ran for the door controls but lost my left hand in the process. I turned around to face the elite and unloaded a clip into his midsection. It cut through him like a hot knife through butter.
I looked over toward Murphy. He was leaning up against a wall, his right led was gone, I motioned for him to click on his boot traction. Right as I saw his hand hit the button I opened the door and watched as the last of the covenant defenses were sucked out.
I closed the door and walked over to Murphy. I helped him into one of the covenant drop ships and climbed aboard after retrieving Condor's body, which got caught on one of the Covenant supply crates. I radioed Ronin and he gave me a quick course on how to fly the ship, and then he opened a door and we were gone.
We docked with the Ticonderoga seconds later and were met by a medical team. Ronin sent the coordinates to us and we followed him straight to the covenant home world.
The trip took about a week, but we arrived just in time to see the fireworks. The large planet exploded in a big ball of fire. We watched from 5000 kilometers away as the planet swallowed up not only itself, but a large number of cruisers that tried to escape.
The war was almost over, all of the people who died for this to happen would not be forgotten. The Ticonderoga turned away from the exploding planet and raced away. A month later, after making numerous random stops and turns to elude anyone who was following us, we arrived back on Earth and received the biggest heroes welcome ever.
It was all over a year later, all traces of the covenant were wiped out. The Spartan and the rest of the fallen marines that we brought back were given proper burials in a private yard reserved for the best of the best. For Ox and Rabbit the coffins were empty, except for the medals that they had received for their duties.
I settled down and had a family. Murphy bought a farm in Ireland and spent the rest of his life there writing books about what had happened during the war. Murphy died in 2580, but his memory lived on forever.
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