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Briggs Marauders part 3: Halos Thermopylae
Posted By: Matt Cesario<caesarcesario@comcast.net>
Date: 12 July 2005, 3:14 am
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hey. I know I took long with the third part so I put in the first two to replenish your memory. I'm sorry it took so long I just got hung up with academic crap and a serious romantic thing but after almost a year of silence here it is, the third and final part of Briggs Marauders. I put a * where the new stuff begins.
D+132:38:20, September 20, 2552 (military calendar) somewhere on the surface of Halo.
Platoon leader Adrian Briggs looked up and down the line of six warthogs poised to spring from the forest they were concealed in and ambush the covenant vehicle pool over the rise. He was given special orders from Major Silva to branch off from the convoy leaving the Pillar of Autumn's crash site and proceed to find and harass the enemy to the best of his ability. His air support, dropship D111, had spotted this vehicle pool on the way into the crash site.
The seventeen other men under his command had all seen battle before and were the best of the best. There were six ODST's in the dropship that could help reinforce him if needed. He reviewed the Marauders one more time, two passengers were armed with sniper rifles, three with the new M19 SSM rocket launcher and then himself with his trusty MA5B. Then on two of the warthogs, the M41 chain guns were replaced with a M19 rocket launcher. Briggs couldn't wait to see how those would do.
"Marauders, prepare to attack on my mark." said Briggs. He waited a minute or two then screamed into the mike: "mark!"
With that all the warthogs rumbled to life and flew over the hill. Luckily the shade guns were unmanned and they swept through the defenses. The Covenant were caught completely off guard, most of the grunts were asleep.
Over his radio he heard the gunners and passengers calling in a kill: "Blue one gunner, got three of those covie SOB's." "Blue three passengers, got a two for one!" "Red two gunner, got a whole squad of those mothers!! This swap is great!!"
Briggs thought it best to join in the fight and get a few for himself. It was hard though because he could only use one hand, the other was holding him in the 'hog. None the less he got three or four grunts.
"This is Red two driver, got a visual on some enemy Ghosts, two of them coming down spin!!"
"Roger Red two. Red two and three break and engage enemy units." said Briggs.
"Roger."
"Sir," said his driver, "look, there is a platoon of jackals massing in a rough phalanx formation."
"Blue group, follow us, we're going to break their formation and scatter them into the hills up spin from here." said Briggs.
"Roger, moving now."
"Delta 111, this is Red one."
"Copy Red one go ahead."
"Deploy the troops to the hills just up spin, we're setting up an ambush and we are going to push the enemy straight at them." said Briggs.
"Copy, deploying."
Then Delta 111 flew right over Briggs head and opened fire on the Jackals formation with its 70mm chin gun as it past over them. The remaining Jackals held their ground only to be cut down by a hail of 102mm rockets and 12.7mm rounds. The remaining elites and grunts fled into the hills looking for salvation from enemy fire only to be greeted by four HE grenades and more AP rounds. Then Briggs wondered how Red three and two were fairing with the ghosts.
"Red group report over." said Briggs.
"Red two, got a wounded passenger, he looking pretty bad need an evac."
"Read three, got some wounded but its nothing a first aid kit won't fix."
"Roger, Delta 111 this is Red one need an evac for a critically wounded at Red twos location over." said Briggs.
"Copy that Red one tell them to move to the hills, we'll pick him up there." said the pilot of Delta 111.
"Roger, Red one out."
Briggs looked back at the covie vehicle pool, almost everything was destroyed and it even looked like Blue one took some grunts prisoner. Now it was time to gather intelligence on more covie positions and motor pools. He ordered Blue group tp dismount and collect any intel they could find. Then Briggs thought he heard the faint whine of a banshee in the distance, but concluded his ears were just playing a trick on him. Just to be careful he alerted the group of the possibility of a banshee in the area and to watch the sky.
Not a minute after he warned the group a banshee came in at tree top level and strafed the dropship picking up the ODST's and his wounded. The gunner on Red two fired on the banshee as it pulled out of its run, making it smoke from one of its engines. As it came back around for another pass the dropship was already lifting off into the air giving Red twos gunner a clear line of sight and blew the banshee right out of the sky.
"Good shooting Red two. Marauders regroup at my position." said Briggs.
"Roger moving to your position." replied Blue one.
"Platoon leader, be advised that there are two covie dropships inbound to your location with banshee escorts, advise that you get the hell out of there!" said Lance "Finch" Horton, pilot of Delta 111.
"Copy that, thanks." said Briggs.
"I got orders from Alpha Base to proceed back, it looks like the convoy hit a snag. But if you need me call me." replied Horton.
Briggs laughed and replied: "All right Finch, see you up spin."
"All right."
Then Delta 111 sped forward, up and over a hill then vanished.
"Ok marauders, lets move out before those covie dropships get here." said Briggs
"Which direction sir?" asked Blue one.
"Up spin." said Briggs.
"Sir all that's up spin is swamp to the left and a grassy barren plain to the right." said private Marcus, Blue twos gunner.
"I'm well aware of that private. We will proceed on through the plain and on to the forests that follow, are we clear marauders?" asked Briggs.
"Sir yes sir!!"
One hour later, grassy plain just up spin from covenant motor pool.
Adrian Briggs looked through his binoculars at a covie position just over a small hill. On his right was one of the snipers, lance corporal Gary Grimes. The structure the covenant had secured was shooting some sort of energy pulse out of it that seemed to go up to the other side of the ring. He guessed there was three Elites, two were blue armored ones and one was a silver armored one. There were probably twelve Grunts armed with Needler and Plasma pistols. There were no Jackals which was good. But there were two Ghosts, probably for the Blue Boy Elites.
He called up his other sniper Corporal Antonio Delgado.
"Ok, Corporals listen up, I want you two to take up position on the left and right flank. Delgado you take right, Grimes you take left." said Briggs.
They both nodded and started to move to there positions. Then he called up his two rocket jockeys: Private Sanders, Private Jansen and Private Jones.
"Ok you three stay here and when I give you the signal blast the hell out of that place, got it." said Briggs.
"Copy that." they all said.
Finally he told the gunners and drivers to dismount and come up.
"Ok, we will be making the main assault. The snipers will cover us and by the time we get there to the structure there will be only a few Grunts. Don't look so scared, it will be a cakewalk." said Briggs.
"Ah, sir? Why don't we use the 'hogs for this one?" asked a private.
"So we don't have to waste gas private." replied Briggs. "And besides I want to stretch my legs."
With that Briggs gave the order for the snipers to terminate the Elites. Briggs peered over the hill looking through his binoculars at the three Elites standing there talking as eight 14.5mm sniper rounds blew through the blue Elites, but the silver one vanished before his eyes.
"Jockeys! Blow the hell out of that place, only use one satchel though." said Briggs.
With that the air around the structure was filled with shrapnel as the four rockets ripped into the scattered covie cargo modules that littered the surrounding area.
"Charge!!!" screamed Briggs as him and his twelve infantrymen followed behind him.
They covered the ground quickly and only found four hysterical Grunts screaming and running in circles when they arrived. They took care of them easily. Now they had to find the invisible bastard that was around here somewhere.
"Snipers and jockeys, hold position. Blue group secure the Ghosts, and Red team come with me, we're going to secure the top of the structure. And all of you watch out there is one of those invisible guys around here." said Briggs.
Red group walked up the ramp to the top level and when they got there they found some covie weapons and food.
"Wallace, see if you can raise Delta 111 to come and pick up some of this crap." said Briggs.
"I'll try sir." replied Wallace.
As Briggs turned around he saw a light blue energy blade materialize out of no where and start to charge towards him! He drew his M6D pistol and aimed just to the right of the sword and a little high above and prayed the round would hit the Elite in its head.
As the gun bucked and the shell casing flew out of the chamber the silver Elites body materialized inches from his body and fell backwards, its helmet punctured right between the eyes. One of his men said "Hey, nice shot". Briggs knelt next to the dead Elite, and removed the energy sword from his grasp. When he did so the blade deactivated and made him jump. Briggs examined the metal handle and found only one possible way of turning it on and pressed it. The blade reappeared, Briggs was overjoyed at his new weapon and couldn't wait to try it out on some covie bastard. He deactivated the blade and stuck the handle to his belt buckle and looked off into the distance to see a cloud of dust moving closer to the structure. It looked like he was about to get a chance to try out his new weapon.
Briggs looked through his binoculars at a column of six Ghosts. Sitting in the lead Ghost was a gold armored Elite.
"Snipers and jockeys get the hell up here!" barked Briggs.
When the jockeys and snipers reached the top of the structure he gave them their orders: "Ok, Grimes, Delgado, I want you two to stay up here and concentrate your fire on that gold Elite out front." said Briggs.
"Sir why don't we just make a run for the 'hogs?" asked Grimes.
"When we get there the covenant will already have killed us." replied Briggs.
Grimes looked dismayed and ran to the wall to start firing.
"Everybody else we'll just sit tight and take shots when they get closer." said Briggs.
"Yes sir." replied the Helljumpers in unison.
*"Sir, Delta 111 is inbound. ETA: one minute." said Wallace.
No sooner then Wallace said that the Ghosts opened fire on the humans. The energy weapons fire splashed over the surface of the structure, making the sides melt and sizzle.
"Wallace, alert Finch that we've got a hot LZ!" said Briggs firing onto the Ghosts.
"Sir, Finch isn't touching down." said Wallace.
"What?"
"He's only here for air support." replied Wallace.
"What about the squad of ODSTs?" asked Briggs.
"Sir they were wiped out by some new type of Covenant in the swamp to our left." said Wallace.
"New Covenant?"
"Yes sir that's all I got."
"Sir, Wallace says it's pretty hot down there." Said Bill Yamato, Delta 111s copilot.
"Yeah, it looks it." replied Horton.
With that Finch turned off the safeties to the 70mm chin gun and checked the ammo that was left. 180 rounds out of 200.
"I count six Ghosts." said Yamato.
"Me too."
"I don't think we'll have enough ammo for all of them." said Yamato.
"We will. Remember Jericho seven?" asked Finch.
"I'm trying to forget it." replied Yamato.
With that Delta 111 flew over the alien structure.
"It's show time." said crew chief Mitchell over the com.
Horton took the controls and swooped down over the plain and strafed three Ghosts, turning them into burning ruble. Horton tapped the throttle to the vertical take off engines and leveled the Pelican out and held its position in the air.
"Bill, you have remote control of the chin gun, make some use of it." said Horton with a smirk on his face.
"Right Finch."
Horton looked on as the Ghosts were blasted to bits.
"Area clear sir, do you want to set down?" asked Yamato.
"Yeah...right there next to those pipes coming out of the ground." said Finch.
When the Pelican touched down Horton turned off the engines and unbuckled himself from the flight seat and walked out of the troop compartment, his pistol drawn just in case. He was followed by Bill and Mitchell, who was carrying a MA2B carbine.
"Hey Finch!" said Briggs.
"Hey Adrian, how you doin'?" replied Finch.
"A lot better if I new what the hell is going on down at the swamp." said Briggs.
"All I know is that there is some new enemy, either a new race of covenant or the alien race that built this thing in the first place. But nonetheless, they are hostile so watch out." said Finch.
"Great that's all we need is another enemy to soak up supplies, men and time." said Briggs.
"Ya Silva's not to happy about it either."
"He's still in command? What about Keyes?"asked Briggs.
"He bought it in the swamp as far as I know." said Horton. "Which reminds me we've got new orders. Silva is suspecting that the Covenant are going to launch an attack on Alpha Base within 12 hours. So he wants all units to report back to the base and we'll then move out, across the mountains up-spin to try and engage the Covenant to distract them from hitting Alpha Base." said Horton.
"That man's a fool! All that plan will do is weaken Alpha Base and when the Covenant attack we won't be able to hold and we'll be over run." said Briggs.
"Not unless we win."
"We won't win! The UNSC has only won battles when we out number the Covenant three to one or more! And what is the ratio now? Fifty to one? One hundred to one? Lance we can't win." said Briggs with a shaky tone of voice. "I've seen more combat than you, I've lost more friends than you and I've seen more worlds Glassed than you, including the planet which I grew up on, Eridanus 2!"
"I know Adrian," said Finch as he stepped closer to Briggs "and your daughter and wife are safe on Earth, while my two boys and my wife burned to death after Noria fell to the Covenant. Now you should fight for them, fight so you can see them one more time, fight to save them."
Briggs looked at Finch and said: "You're right, I'll fight for them, for their safety. Ok men lets move out! We're going back to Alpha Base, lets make it quick we don't got much time!" yelled Briggs.
Three hours later, mountains six miles up-spin from Alpha Base.
"Silva that prick!" exclaimed Briggs. "He gives us one Scorpion tank and takes away four of my Warthogs, leaving me the two with the rocket attachment! Does he want to have the Covies come knocking on his front door?"
"Well at least he gave a few extra men, sir." said Corporal Delgado, who was lying on his stomach, looking through his snipers scope.
He was waiting to see the Covenant column of three Wraith tanks and six Ghosts. Wellsley had seen them on his long range heat scanners and Silva gave him the job of preventing them from getting to the Butte. Briggs naturally was granted air support with Finch and his crew circling above. Even though they wouldn't do much good because they used up most of their ammo at structure, taking out those Ghosts. They would be mostly for show. Then he had Red two and Blue two with their rocket launchers. And he had the rest of his men with him plus eight more. They were all concealed behind a small stone wall they had built roughly forty-five minutes earlier. The Scorpion tank sat in the middle of the narrow pass covered with some camo netting. And the 'hogs sat ready behind two large boulders. It was getting dark and the Covies should be coming soon.
"Sir! I got a visual on an Elite, coming up the pass." said Delgado.
"Anything else?" asked Briggs.
"....yes sir, I see about twenty Grunts on foot plus seven Jackals and three Elites on foot. I also have a visual on the armor, just like Wellsley said, sir." replied Delgado.
"Ok, everyone here they come. Hold your fire till I say, and be careful cause they might use some of those large rocks out there as cover." said Briggs into his mike.
He watched through his night vision monocular as the Covie infantry started to close. They weren't even being cautious, they were just strolling down the pass like they were out for a nice evening walk! It was time to make them pay.
"Snipers, fire at will. Jockeys prepare to fire on my mark." whispered Briggs into his mike.
With that there was about five seconds of silence till Delgado fired at a Grunt and killed it. Now Briggs watched as the Covies scurried about trying to take cover behind the boulders, unfortunately most of them did.
"Rockets, FIRE!" yelled Briggs, he watched as two salvos of three rockets flew into the rocky pass and luckily some for targets and blew them sky high.
"Ok, infantry fire at will, Scorpion fire at will." said Briggs.
Now the pass was illuminated with the blue, green and pink of the Covie energy weapons and the orange from the human weapons. He couldn't even look through his monocular it was so bright.
"Warthogs go, and good hunting." said Briggs into his mike.
He the saw the Warthogs speed out from behind their boulders and into to the Covenant line. And it seemed that the four remaining Ghosts wanted tot return the favor. They sped up and over the small stone wall they built. One Ghost even took off the head of one of his Privates as it sped over the wall.
The Elite infantry commanders used this time of confusion to their advantage. They rallied what was left of their infantry and charged the Human line, following a salvo of plasma balls from the Wraiths.
"Jansen concentrate on those Ghosts at are rear!" yelled Briggs. As he turned to survey the battle he saw that the Covenant infantry is rushing their line! He fired at the lights he saw that were on the Covenant armor. And when he heard a few screams coming from the direction he fired he was happy. Then a Covenant Elite jumped onto the tank and activated an energy sword.
"Joe, watch out you got an Elite on-" but it was to late. The Elite ripped open the commanders hatch on the Scorpion and jabbed his sword into the compartment. Then he opened the drivers hatch and did the same.
Now Briggs was pissed off and charged the Elite. He fired half his clip at it and then smacked it across the jaw with the butt of his rifle. Then he fired the last twenty rounds into the Elites head, killing it. He looked around and saw that his men were no longer behind the wall, but scattered everywhere in the pass. He could see a burst from and AR here and there but very quickly the number of bursts lessened until there wasn't anymore. Then he heard an Elite yell out something and the few remaining Jackals and Grunts cheer.
Briggs thought for a moment then removed the torso of the Scorpion commander from the compartment and jumped in. He looked around until he found the joystick for the turret. He grabbed it and looked through the video periscope. He turned the turret around and fired at where he heard the Elite yell. The explosion illuminated the pass for a second but he couldn't see much. Then a four-fingered hand rapped around the top of the compartment and an Elites head poked over the side. Briggs looked up and angled his assault rifle and pulled the trigger.
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