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Memories of a Dying Soldier - THE END
Posted By: Spartan Elessar<spartan_elessar@yahoo.com>
Date: 9 June 2006, 9:29 am


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Chapter 11:

The End of the beginning

August 30, 2552

Orbital Defense Generator, B-207

Planet Reach



      Sergeant Logan Kelso looked out of his drench slowly. All he could see was a covenant cruiser hovering over the surface of Planet Reach, unloading its ground force. He eased back into his pit and switched on his radio.

       "This is Alpha, come in Charlie team. I repeat, come in Charlie Team," he barked. Nothing but static filled the radio.

       "I don't think they made it sir," said Kelly, who sat with him, inside the pit.

       "Don't give up your hope," he whispered back. Even though he knew Kelly was damn right, however, he refused to accept it. The thought made his stomach to dive uneasily.

       "I don't see any hope sir," complained the young marine. His voice had no expression and his face had no light. He looked like a living dead.

      Logan turned around and met the young man's eye and said, "What are you talking about? You are still alive, I am still alive…now that's a bad news to those Covenant bastards," he forced a smile, "There is always hope. Find it Kelly."

      Kelly nodded his head and looked down at his assault rifle. Logan has never seen his team member like this before; they always stick together till the end, but Kelly gave up too fast, as if his beliefs, motives and goals were gone. But of course, he can't blame him, after all his team – family, was dead. You are a… Logan cursed himself.

       "Charlie team, do you hear me? Over," he tried once again. There was no answer. He threw his radio in frustration and guilt, which startled Kelly for a second.

       "ARGH," Logan shouted and buried his face into his hands.

       "I give up," muttered Logan. All now that is left of his greatly treasured team was he and Kelly. The thought made a tear to escape from his eyelid; he pushed it away and took a deep breath.

       "We two can't protect the generator, we need back ups. Call for reinforcement," ordered Logan. His face was grim and expressionless.

      Kelly picked up the radio and did as the Sergeant ordered. After few minutes, he gave Logan a negative answer.

       "That's it, I am going in. I can't wait till they come and get us. I am taking the fight to them. Load up Kelly. We are going to fight together or we die together," he said firmly and loaded his MA5B Assault rifle.

      The ammunition read full, he checked his own armory. They had two M90 Shotguns, three M6D pistols and two SSM Rocket launchers.

       "Take the rocket launcher, a shotgun, some fragmentation grenades and extra shells for your shotgun," said Logan to Kelly, and he obeyed.

      Logan took some extra clips for his own Assault rifle, picked up a rocket launcher and grabbed some of the Covenant's plasma grenades. He checked his weaponries one last time and gave a move-out sign.

      Sergeant Logan and Kelly jumped up from the pit and crouched to the nearby trees. The sky was unusually pale due to the air, which was hot and burning.

      Sweat dripped from Logan's forehead as the temperature increased every minute. This was not his first experience to be trapped in a planet that was going to be glassed. He has been and seen Covenant's glassing before. However, he has escaped before, maybe not this time.

      Both the soldiers leveled themselves to the ground and watched the alien's battle cruiser through their binoculars.

      The silver ship was hovering over a hundred feet above the ground and a huge purple light connected the belly of the ship and the solid ground. Multiple troops were making landfall through the bright light.

      Hundreds of them landed on the surface in groups – Elites, Jackals, Grunts and Hunters. They all formed a camp within their territory and waited, for what? Logan wondered.

       "You see that shade Kelly?" he pointed a Covenant's stationary gun, which was located near a tent. Kelly shifted his focus to it and nodded.

       "That tent, near the shade, has Covenant weapons, I think. And I am pretty sure they have loads of these Plasma grenades," he took one from his jacket and showed it. "If we shoot at the Shade, it will explode like a balloon and will cause a chain reaction among the grenades. That fire power can kill those pair of hunters," he whispered.

       "Once we clear those guys, we are going to use our remaining rockets to take down those immobile banshees. Then we move in and unleash a hell among them," he stopped and fixed his eye on Kelly's. "Son, I am not going to say that we will make this day…alive. This is a one-way ticket to hell. Are you ready for this?" Logan knew he was asking too much from his fragile team mate. But he was the team leader, so he did and will not hesitate to sacrifice his life – but what about his team?

      Kelly took a moment to look at the sergeant's face and the Covenant's. "Sir, I am with you. Lead the way," he replied briskly and gave a wearied smile. Logan returned the smile and turned away to meet their doom.

       "On my mark!" Logan said and steadied himself with the rocket launcher on his shoulder. "Mark"

      Kelly and he got up and shot their 102 mm high-powered rockets toward the Shade.

      The rockets impacted the shade and blew it up into pieces. The explosion and the fire did exactly as Logan intended, started a chain reaction. The Grenades blew in unison and knocked the pair of Hunters out of the action.

      This sudden attacked startled the Covenant ground force. Grunts and Jackals looked around nervously. Elites ran towards their banshee, unfortunately those flying machines exploded into plumes of fire, when another pair of rockets impacted.

      Logan and Kelly threw their empty Rocket launchers and dived into the mist of the aliens – mist of their death.

      Shards of needles and plasma hit the soldiers squarely on their chests. Both fell down the moment the needles exploded.

      Kelly died on the spot, with a heavy plasma burn on his face and chest. Logan took the hit on his lower side of the stomach and fell down paralyzed.

      Pain washed through his body. He could feel the burned skin and flesh, but he couldn't move. His spine ran cold and his head ached severely. His mouth twitched as blood leaked out causing him to yell in pain silently. The only thing that stirred was his eyes, which rotated within its socket as if it got a fit.

      All he could see was the belly of the Covenant's battle ship – the same shadow. His vision faded for a second causing a complete darkness but it came back. He could feel his low heart beat which thumped within him, meaninglessly. Things started to move slowly to Logan as his brain started to grow numb. He tried to look for Kelly, but he failed, all he could see was this shadow hovering over him. He felt disoriented and bewildered.

      White lights flashed in front of him. It flashed with his heart beat. He could feel his muscles tighten and relax as weird thoughts entered his mind.

      The white light was so bright it blinded him for a full second. He closed his lid and opened it, the light was still there. The sound of the Covenant, the battle, the fire went mute as if someone turned down the volume - Everything was dead still.

      An unusual peace came over him and he was free of pain. The bright light faded as he saw a small boy running around with a toy plane on his hand. Then the same young boy turned into an adult and ran along with group of other boys in a boot camp. The adult turned into a fierce soldier and shot every alien down with his rifle. After few seconds of these perplexed thoughts, he felt a heavy heat suspended over his paralyzed face. He opened his eyes and saw an eight-foot tall Elite standing above him with a plasma rifle at its hand, pointing at his face.

      Hopelessly, Logan tried to move, but all he could do was move his face an inch or so to his left. Suddenly, as if someone turned on the radio to its full volume, sounds came to existence. He could hear the high squeal and barks from the aliens along with a huge roar. Something was so different about this roar, it sounded like an UNSC Warthog. After a split second, just like Logan thought a green hog jumped above him, knocking the Elite off and landed between him and the aliens, forming a shield.

      To his greatest surprise, the person who was driving the hog and the person who was spraying hails of bullets on the surprised Covenant were Spartans. Those green armored super humans has once again have come to help him at the perfect moment. But was it really a perfect time?

      Before he could move any further, the Spartan who drove the hog jumped out and carried Logan to the vehicle.

       "Kelly…Kelly…" Logan muttered to the Spartan, but the armored human just looked at him. He wasn't sure what the Spartan was thinking, but he knew one thing though, it looked like the Spartan asked, "What?"

       "My team…Kelly…soldier…near," Logan tried, but the Spartan ignored it and laid him gently on the foot of the LAAG. Logan wasn't sure whether they were still fighting the aliens or did they just eliminated all of the ground force, but he was so keen about his team member. He did not want to leave his men behind, so he turned over from his prone position and tried to look outside the hog. But the Spartan who was operating the LAAG caught him before he stumbled out of the vehicle. Logan tried to resist, but he absolutely had no power.

       "He is dead," muttered the Spartan as if he read his mind. "Now, stay still. Get us out of here," The Spartan barked

       "Roger," said the other Spartan and put the pedal to the metal. The hog flew away from the location and sped towards the Orbital defense generator.

       "He is bleeding, hand me that foam," shouted the Spartan, who disengaged himself from the LAAG and bent over toward Logan. Logan wasn't sure what was happening, he felt so dizzy. Suddenly a sharp pain rose from his belly and realized that the Spartan was filling him up with bio-foams. His breathing became shallow as the pain rose to the unbearable limit. But still it didn't trouble him. The only thing that hot and bothered around his head was this horrible news. No matter what his gut told him, he still couldn't accept the ill news – his team was gone, forever. Soon I will be too; Logan thought and closed his eyes.

      The Hog shook violently as its massive tires ran over the uneven landscape. All of a sudden the hog stopped abruptly, causing Logan to hit the side metal. Then he was gently lifted away from the vehicle and placed on a cool brick floor.

       "It looks like he is the last one left in his team," murmured one of the Spartans

       "Yes I think so…" but their voices dissolved into Logan's agony. He tried to get up, but he fell back in pain.

       "Take it easy," said one of the Spartans. "So did you and your team were protecting this facility?"

      Logan nodded. "There is no one left…" Logan said, "We have orders…"

      The Spartan nodded and looked around. "If we place our machine guns over that area…" he said as he pointed his finger before him, "We might be able to repel them…" once again Logan felt lost, so their words went unheard.

      He closed his eyes and tired to relax. Once again the surrounding sounds went mute.

       Logan opened his eyes and saw a corn field. He knew this place, this was his home world. A bunch of kids were running all over the place shouting, "Tag." Logan gently moved towards them, but he stopped when that vision dissolved into a huge structure. Now he saw one hundred young adults standing in front of a strong man. Logan knew him, he was Chief Jason Gibson. He was shouting orders to the young adults, who wore just a pant and a torn undershirt. When Logan tried to move out of their way, he tripped and fell down. When he got up he saw a whole new picture. He was standing near a beach, everything looked quite and nice, but all of a sudden he heard a huge explosion. When he turned around he saw a group of marines repelling a bunch of aliens. The lead marine ran in front of them and called out "Logan, over here." He knew that voice; it was Jen, his old friend. When he saw Jen trip and fell down, he ran towards him shouting, "Jen watch out." But Logan fell down and went unconscious. When he woke up, he was lying inside a room filled with bright lights. He strained his eyes and looked around, there was a woman standing near him. "Hey Logan, how do you feel now?" she asked. "Rose?" Logan whispered. "Yes you silly," she answered back smiling. Logan smiled and touched her.

       "I AM LOSING HIM…" a voice echoed inside his head. Logan tried to ignore it, but the dream which he was seeing dissolved as he opened his eyes. The sounds once again came back and rang inside his ear.

       "…Stay with me pal. Alex, hand me that!" shouted the Spartan. Logan looked around; it took him a full heart beat to clear his eyes. He was inside the same facility and the two Spartans, who saved him, were fighting fiercely. One of the Spartans, who drove the hog, was treating his wound, Logan could feel the harsh burn on his stomach, but he did not flinch. The sounds started to dissolve once again; Logan cleared his throat and said, "Sir…"

      The Spartan looked up. Logan raised his right hand very slowly to his head. It took all of his strength to raise his hand and gave a small salute to the Spartan. "Thank you," he whispered and closed his eyes forever. After two heart beats, his breath stopped and he joined his dead team mates for eternity.


THE END




Everthing has an End. Finally my Twelve Chapter Story (Including the Prologue) has come to an end. Not an Happy ending - but hey, if you have read the story from the beginning you would have seen this coming. I have really put some work and time into this series, so please read and review it. I would really love to hear from you all - about my story. I want to know what you all thought - Likes and Dislikes. So please Read and Review it. Thank you!





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