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Warriors Of Zanzibar by DarkMage
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Warriors Of Zanzibar - Chapter 2
Date: 22 August 2004, 2:44 PM
Half Lemming woke up in pain; his head felt like someone had hit him repeatedly with something heavy. His stomach hurt too, and his mouth tasted like copper. He tried to remember what happened, but even that hurt him. Then he remembered, there was a fight, a group of camo Elites had ambushed him and detonated a grenade, nearly killing him - but before he blacked out, he noticed that they were also caught in the explosion and are either dead or dying. He sat up and coughed, the pain was bearable for the time being. Half raised his SMG, realising that he only had one as he muttered sarcastically.
"God damn Covenant, first you nearly kill me, now I can't find my SMG, thanks a lot." He checked the area carefully, making sure that there was no Covenant around - Including those pesky camo elites. There was no-one in sight; just him and the gentle sloshing of the sea. He looked for his battle rifle, finding it in pieces two metres away from where he was.
"Make that two weapons," He growled aggressively, standing to his feet. Half looked down at his armour; a thick layer of black soot had masked it. He wiped it away, just in time to hear Darren, shout over the SQUADCOM.
"Dammit! Covenant dropships inbound! All available Spartans report to the front of the structure, lets give these ugly alien bastards a warm welcome!" Half tried to respond, but the EMP blast from the plasma grenade could have broken or damaged his COM system.
"Spartans! Come in! This is Half Lemming, respond!" He shouted, and inserted a new magazine into his charred SMG. Half stood up, his feet leaving deep footprints in the soft sand as he rounded a huge rock to see seven covenant dropships unloading 52 Elites and two pairs of Hunters - all with heavy artillery including fuel rod cannons, plasma rifles, and covenant carbines. He needed to find a way back, and soon. One Spartan against 56 trigger-happy Covenant weren't good odds.
Half Lemming looked around for another way back into the structure. Directly in front of him was an opening; big enough to fit a warthog through, the limestone walls eroded and crumbled. This entrance was the only way for him to be reunited with his fellow Spartans, since the other entrance - over the sea wall - was now infested with the bug-like covenant troops, their beetle-like amour shimmering in the afternoon sun as they plotted their assault on Zanzibar. Harry peeked around the huge rock, to see eight elites piloting the covenants reconnaissance and rapid attack vehicles. The Ghost is equipped with two energy weapons capable of projecting a super-heated bolt of plasma in the 100-250kW range. Its boost feature can get its driver in and out of battle quick and easy, but sacrifices firing whilst doing so. The only weakness about the ghost is that the driver is virtually unprotected.
Suddenly, the eight ghosts picked up speed, their humming engines alerting Harry of their fast approach. He stood back-to-back with the huge chunk of limestone, racking a round into his SMG. He slipped silently into frothing surf of Zanzibar's shore, the knee-high water sloshing around his legs as he carefully surveyed his surroundings. If he was caught, he was dead; there was hardly any cover apart from the rock which he now gripped with armoured fingers. His heart pounded inside his chest, the adrenaline caused him to expect the unexpected as the eight floating ghosts steered straight through the opening, one staying behind to guard a possible escape route for his comrades.
"Should I...?" Harry mumbled, thoughts racing through his mind along with two possible scenarios. One - he could board the ghost from the rear, and silently kill the driver without creating too much disturbance. Or Two - he would be caught and be blown into oblivion.
Slowly and silently, Half Lemming waded out of the waist-high water and broke into a sprint towards the floating vehicle, the soft sand crunching underneath the half-ton of MJOLNIR armour he was wearing. Suddenly, an icy hand grabbed his heart in a vice as the guarding ghost started to turn, towards him! Time seemed to slow down as its two plasma cannons started to heat up, the Elite driver releasing a bloodthirsty war cry.
He was a meter away when they fired...And he was already in the air, his legs tucked into his chest as the super-heated plasma missed him by inches. Harry landed on the left-wing of the ghost with a metallic crunch, the metal buckling under the combined weight of him and his armour. The driver let out a roar of surprise as Harry lifted his SMG, the recital in his HUD glowing a deep red as it found its target. He squeezed the trigger, and a full automatic burst pounded at the Elites shields, caused them to overload and started to pierce its shiny armour - purple blood splattering the controls as it cried in confusion and agony as the 5mm rounds clashed with bone and sinew, and created a hole the size of Harry's fist in the elites chest.
The Elite cried in pain, before crashing onto the blood-soaked sand. It twitched twice, and stopped moving. Harry seized the opportunity by jumping into the driver's seat, the twin control sticks covered in alien gore. He grabbed the controls and steered the alien craft to the right, the vehicle releasing a steady hum as it turned. Half studied the sea wall directly in front of him for any signs of the covenant. There was no one in sight.
Unexpectedly, a green lance of super-heated plasma hit the ghost's left wing, blowing it into a million tiny pieces of white-hot metal. The sudden blast resulted in Harry being tossed out of his newly acquired ghost; a wave of boiling heat causing his internal temperature gauge to skyrocket, before slowly falling back down. The ghost on the other hand was hurled end-over-end - missing Harry's head by inches - into a nearby tree, the tropical plant splintering into a million tiny fragments.
"CRAP! What the hell was that? "Harry shouted angrily as he searched the area for his attacker. There was no one around. In the distance he could hear the roars of dying elites, the explosions of ghosts, and the rattling of human weaponry.
And the roaring of a UNSC Pelican dropship...
What was happening? Were they pulling First Contact out? Had they sent reinforcements? Harry was eager to get to the dropship and find out what was going on. But first, he had to find out who the hell just tried to kill him...
Then he saw it...The metallic blue bulk of two covenant Hunter's - equipped with a fuel rod cannon, a huge impenetrable shield, and razor-sharp spines. The covenant hunter was not an enemy to underestimate
Harry quickly inserted a new magazine into his SMG, racked a round into chamber, and sent a controlled burst towards the Hunter's. They hid behind their shields, the bullets bouncing off the covenant warriors. Click Click Click. The SMG was empty, and Harry was out of ammo. The Hunter's used the opportunity to their advantage. One of them growled a challenge before lifting its deadly fuel-rod cannon. It pulsed a dark emerald green before it fired at Half Lemming.
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