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Rendezvous – Part Two
Posted By: Mark Lieberg<malieberg@msn.com>
Date: 14 June 2011, 4:57 am
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1842 Hours, July 02, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Location: X-ray 28, Grid 112783, Near Base Charlie
Planet Levosia, 26 Draconis System.
Three giant robotic looking machines could be seen sprinting along the horizon as the sun began to set. As if racing on a street in a motor vehicle, these three Spartans became a blur amongst the wind. They had a mission to complete, and they would not let anything get in their way.
"ETA?" Willis asked noticing his slightly, if it could be read as that, increased breathing. It had been a few years since he could remember the last time he had sprinted this fast.
"We'll be there shortly. A little under two minutes maybe. Only ten kilometers," replied Kathy.
"You do know," Richard cut in, "that if there are more of them than us, that we cannot hold them off? We hardly have any ammunition to repel two armored tanks...much less an entire ground invasion force. Not to mention the short supply of time."
"Stay focused." Kathy exclaimed as she leapt high into the air. Willis followed, followed by Richard. All three Spartans landed in a forward roll, gaining enough momentum, and jumped back sprinting.
"I hope that Pelican has some firepower. We'll be in a tight spot if we come without any drinks for the party," Willis chuckled.
"You're right. The Covenant won't take too kindly to tardiness." S-231 answered sarcastically.
The hill before them began to rise. Ten kilometers was a breeze to the trio. To any normal man, ten kilometers in two minutes would have been an absurdly insane thought; but not for supermen.
Reaching the crest of the hill and slowing down, they dropped to a low crawl and slowly made their way to the edge.
"Do you see them?" Willis asked enhancing his vision through his heads up display.
The three Spartans gathered and reconned the area. From their position, they witnessed destruction on a massive scale. Two Scorpion-MBTs were completely flipped over, wreckage from what appeared to be a warthog laid waste in smoke, and bodies, dozens of bodies ─ both Human and Covenant alike ─ laid dead.
They were too late.
Across the field, a flicker of light could be seen through a cloud of black smoke emanating from a destroyed Covenant Ghost. A sleek, tall, creature walked slowly as it surveyed the surrounding area. Its' gold plated helmet reflected the sunlight as its head turned towards the Ghost and back.
"Chief, I have eyes on a target," Willis whispered, pulling the charging handle to his assault rifle to chamber a round, "One Goldie, plus four. Could be others, but I can't see through this smoke."
Kathy enhanced her own HUD and decided to go against targeting remaining Covenant soldiers on the spot. She had to find the Pelican the Commander was referring to first before proceeding. She crawled down the ledge a few feet and flipped over onto her back, pulling out her holo-map in the progress.
Richard and Willis shuffled down as well, and watched the Chief Petty Officer enhance their current grid coordinates on the map. Pointing, Kathy said, "Look here." The map enhanced on a dorsal view of a D77. In full view, the Pelican dropship looked as if it was prepped to takeoff. These men didn't have a chance, the Chief thought.
"From the looks of it, she seems intact." Thumbing off the hologram, the Chief looked at her teammates. "Let's do this fast and proceed to the generator asap," Kathy charged her own assault rifle and noticed Richard doing the same.
"If you see any bogeys, eliminate them. Remember," she continued, "Kill first and ask questions later. We need to take off immediately."
Standing up preparing to run down the hill, the team double checked their gear. Kathy noticed Willis's waist belt and saw only two grenades. If her team ran into any armored vehicles, they would have to fall back. Two grenades were not going to be enough to stop a Wraith.
As if on cue, the three armored super soldiers began firing away. For what seemed like minutes to the Spartans recognition of normal time, were only seconds out in the real world. Bluish-hued blood would splatter as shredder rounds pierced the head of Grunts. Shattered bodies, ripped from AP rounds, of Jackals would sprawl to the ground, cold and lifeless.
Then there was the Gold armored Elite and four others.
Time seemed to slow down even more considerably when it came towards battle with these types of creatures of the Covenant army. The team had dealt with these split-mandible warriors before, but rarely. Most of the time, the fights ended with it being hand-to-hand combat. Kathy did not want to deal with martial arts this time, especially if they carried energy swords.
Willis, as if he read the Chief's mind, pulled off the two remaining fragmentation grenades from his waist and threw with all his might at two separate Elites.
One Elite, not noticing the enticing battle, got hit squarely in the back of his head. Falling fast head first, blood began to seep through the crack in his helmet.
The second Elite growled in anger, but the speed of the M9 explosive was too fast for the creature to dodge. Hitting the 'split-jaw' in the chest, the Elite became furious, clutching his torso while attempting to let out another roar of searing pain.
The Spartans had enough remaining time to escape the shrapnel from the grenades. Three more seconds and they would be up and away from four of the Elites fast enough to watch the fireworks. The last Elite however, had to be dealt with physically, but Richard was already on it.
Or in it.
Unsheathing the hidden blade in his left shoulder pauldron, Richard took a quick breath and zoomed in on his target, still in rapid movement towards the Pelican. A blade was now penetrated deep inside the Elites' temple.
Another second ticked away.
The two grenades Willis threw at the pair of Elites went off simultaneously. Thick clouds of smoke replaced the standing beasts as shrapnel scattered throughout the air hitting whatever it could. Dust would kick up as Covenant cannon-fodder found themselves lying face down in the dirt from being hit with falling shrapnel. They would not survive.
Richard jumped onto the pilots' chair of the Pelican dropship and immediately hit the ignition button. Skipping the preflight check, the Spartan smacked the handle down closing the back hatch and shot more fuel into the four engines by pulling up on the collective.
"Skipping the warm-up Chief," Richard stated lifting up on the cyclic.
Kathy did not know what to say. She just knew her team had to get to Orbital Generator thirty-two-alpha as fast as possible, or their only way off this rock was death itself.
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