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Gathering Storm: Major Skirmish
Posted By: HSAR<research.hyperspace@gmail.com>
Date: 22 May 2008, 7:30 pm
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[Author's Note: This is set on a human colony named Cicada. It has a Forerunner flood containment facility underneath it.]
Look down towards a green valley, with a couple of small hills.
Simple and quiet, it's the embodiment of peace and serenity.
Look down towards a particular rolling hill.
A Mongoose ATV roars over the top, takes a few seconds of airtime and bounces away, closely followed by a lot of plasma fire and a few fuel rods.
So much for peace and serenity.
Riding the ATV is the ODST known as Adam, with Kelly clinging on the back firing rockets. They have just seriously annoyed the Covenant armed forces in the area. If, dear reader, you'd care to look at where they are running away from, you'll find out why.
A supply depot is behind them, complete with fusion tanks. You get one look, and then the depot blows up. Flaming white-hot debris flies out in beautiful arcs.
Back to the ODSTs. They're moving rapidly away, but they aren't quite out of the danger zone yet. A Phantom sweeps overhead, flinging plasma.
"Damn it to hell! Couldn't it have been anywhere else?"
Adam cursed, guiding the small but nimble Mongoose over rocks that sizzle and melt moments later, liquefied by gobbets of superheated plasma.
"Guess not, by the looks of things. D'you think that I could take it out with a rocket?"
"Don't bother, save it for other stuff."
"Okay then. See if you can lose it in that forest over there."
A quick dodge through the forest rewards them with an empty sky; presumably the Phantom has gone off. Kelly radios for pickup.
The instant the pilot on the other end picks up, Kelly senses something is wrong. Static washes over the link, mixed up with screams and loud noises of unknown origin. She puts the call through to Adam on conference mode, then realises it is music. Banjo music.
"Kelly, we're gonna have to take you in later. We've run into heavy Covvie resistance near the LZ; you're either gonna need to go someplace else or clear the LZ for us. Judging by the couple of AA wraiths here, you might want to do the former, over."
"We can't do that one, our vehicle's nearly empty."
"Doesn't look good for you then. Any other options?"
"Nope, over."
"Okay then, ready for pickup and run, then. We'll be there in two."
"Roger that. See you later."
Adam sighed.
"Good thing you saved those rockets, we're gonna have a tough time breaking through."
Kelly is silent for a moment.
"Do you think a jump will do?"
Adam's mind churns with scenarios and calculations.
"Probably. Hope there's a ghost we can ramp off of."
Silence for a few moments, then the duo are approaching the landing zone. Their arrival does not go unnoticed, however. A banshee fighter sweeps over, spitting plasma and launching fuel rods. Adam lightly weaves between flashed of white plasma that fuses sand beneath their wheels, and runs clear. He doesn't see the fuel rod flashing down in time to react, even for his augmented brain. A flash of green, and then they are in flight, still riding the remnants of their disintegrating vehicle. Nick, faithful pelican pilot of the UNSC Pineapple, sees them coming and manoeuvre them into the cargo bay. They rise and salute Lieutenant Ross Kendrick, their commanding officer, and CPO Lewis Polinski before collapsing. The Pineapple banks away, heading for home.
[Some contemporary history for you, reader, in case you are feeling a little lost. The characters introduced so far will all feature, to some extent, in stories to come; so it will be worth knowing more about them. Here we go. In order of appearance, Adam and Kelly are Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, augmented humans modified both physically and psychologically. Clad in 6.5-foot black Environ armour, they are very imposing. Cpl Adam is a master of vehicles and grenade killing. Sgt Kelly prefers heavy weaponry and medium-range warfare. Nick, pilot of the Pineapple (don't ask), is a veteran of many fights and has taken them both of out trouble more times than they can count. He has a strange taste for banjo music, which he plays at volume while executing barrel rolls. Lieutenant Ross Kendrick (also an ODST) is an elite sniper and armourer. He boasts more distance kills than anyone else in the navy, with over 1,000 kills at a distance of 250m or more. They say that he can take the head off a Jackal a kilometre away, and no one yet has had cause to doubt it. CPO Lewis is a more hands-on ODST, more at home with a pump-action shotgun than anything else. Ross, Lewis, Adam and Kelly make up Fire Team Delta. I (the disembodied narrative voice) am Hidden Sentinel, call sign SSC, a Thryst-class military AI from the cruiser UNSC Crimson Sunset. They call me Archimedes.]
[Oh, and my comments are written in these -> [ ]
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