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The Final War: Enemy Battleground[5:2]
Posted By: Awacar<t.alvner@swipnet.se>
Date: 24 December 2003, 2:32 AM


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Chapter Five: Part Two: Awaiting Reinforcements



      Five drop ships took ground, but the Betrayers in there wasn't need to bee shot at, the Forerunners handled the Betrayers properly. But for now, the Covenant had to encounter the Forerunners. Five Brutes stormed forward, got to the Forerunner resistance and crushed the skulls of eight Engineers and ten Commandos, before they were killed. Now, Awacar asked for a more structured wave of attack, and ten golden Elites that wielded swords gathered around him as well as a group of seven Hunters.

      "I want to have a volley over our heads, landing in the opposing force. Hunters, you'll do it, right?" Awacar said.

      "Of course, we're on it." they replied in unison.

      "Good, I then want you Elites to engage the few Forerunners that will be alive, poor unlucky suckers." Awacar ordered the Elites as a stream of fuel rod cells started to fly above his head.

      Master Chief led a team of Grunts, Jackals and Elites. An attack on a Betrayer force was initiated in that team, and the Betrayer force was now in great trouble, as they were squeezed in between the Covenant team and a Forerunner force. Ten Covenant Grunts tried to bring two Brutes down, but the result could only be a slaughter of the ten. Still, one Brute fell, and the other was killed shortly after as an immediate result of a swarm of plasma rifle shots that burned his throat.
      A little later, an Elite shot the Chief with a plasma rifle, and MC's shields was about to go off line. The Chief charged his plasma pistol, and unleashed a big, green shot at the Elite. Red armour was exposed to the green ball of energy before the electro-magnetic shields were able to do anything, and the Elite stepped back because of the pain. Master Chief now had a little time to think about his next action. Grenades weren't an option, and the indicator on the plasma pistol showed a low-battery level. He decided to take a chance, and therefore picked up some snow, formed it into a formless... something and threw it in the face of the Elite when it looked towards the Chief. The Elite was extremely annoyed about the strange, cold mass that covered his eyes, and tried to scrub it away. It didn't succeed; instead, the snow was rubbed even harder into his eyes. At last, he understood that he could shake his head to get it off his face, but by then it was too late: the next thing that he got to see was a green fist that quickly approached his face. A bump was heard when the Elite fell dead to the snow-covered ground.

      Some Hunters at one side of the Betrayer force and a group of Bio-tanks at the other had now started to blast the Betrayers away. It worked, and now the Forerunner and Covenant stood face to face.

      At the other long side of the valley, Awacar and his team made great progress against the Forerunners, as the Hunters blew the way, and Brutes killed the poor survivors. They continued, and the last resistance, a few Bio-tanks, appeared. Shot after shot was fired towards the Covenant, and they made an advancement. Fuel rod cells, plasma rifle shots, and Bio-tank fire filled the air and enlightened the place, and the snow glimmered beautifully in green, blue and red as the shots crossed each other in the snowy, blowing air. Moves were made between the Covenant, but their opposition stood still, ignoring the continuous detonations of rod cells. After a while fighting like this, the Brutes became tired of it, and advanced further in order to get close combat. Since the Hunters couldn't shoot the Forerunners with Brutes between them; they were forced to join in the closer battle.
      This new tactics didn't change the tides of war before the Hunters came, and now, it was a fight at the same conditions. Strength, manoeuvrability and weight of weapons would be the qualities needed to get out of this alive, and suddenly the Bio-tanks had to realize that they weren't having the upper hand, the Hunters dominated this fight, simply because of the massive weight in their shields. The Forerunners had to find themselves in a position on the ground, after they had been thrown away by the Hunters, and was quickly killed as the Brutes moved in to increase their kill-ratio, firing the plasma rifles. The advantage of numbers given to the Covenant was huge, but Awacar still didn't expect that it wouldn't be harder to kill the Forerunners.

      "We are asking for reinforcements, are you able to deliver it?" Cortana asked Awacar through the now very important comm. link.

      "We'll be there, just do us a favour and keep alive, would you?" Awacar replied.

Cortana:
      "We'll do ourselves the favour to keep alive, out."

      As she ended the dialogue, Master Chief commanded a few Jackals to make a barrier, and a couple of Elites to get behind them and fire at their enemies. He hoped that it would hold until Awacar got there. A fierce fight took place at the hill to which the Jackals had been ordered to be at, and plasma pistols were fired as well as the weapons that the Commandos held. Master Chief pushed a few Elites aside, so that he could fire on his own. Together with Jackals and Elites, he fired plasma pistol shots at the Engineers and Snipers below him, and the Grunts shot needles and threw their grenades.
      The Covenant managed to get the Forerunners off the hill, making them easier targets. A hail of green shots was seen, and it landed between the many Forerunners, taking their focus off the on the hill. Covenant troops swarmed down to face the different kinds of Forerunners, and a real battle was on. Awacar and his team pushed the resistance together, and the Master Chief unleashed shot after shot from his plasma pistol. A Commando tried to melee the Chief, who walked backwards to evade the blow, charged his weapon, rushed forth, released the shot and let it hit the head of the Forerunner, and thereafter smashed his fist at the wounded area. The enemy fell face down, lifeless, into the thick cover of snow.

      Chief now encountered a Forerunner Sniper, fired some shots at it but changed, and instead threw a grenade at it. Awacar attacked one of the last enemies that were here, an Engineer. His chosen enemy spotted Awacar just as he started to run, and the creature used its grenade launcher. Awacar jumped away just as he saw a grenade that was about to attach to his face. Luckily, it missed, and he could continue. Awacar had no sword available, he just had to settle with putting a couple dozens of needles in the Forerunner Engineer. While he evaded another launched grenade, he saw two clips full with needles that he picked up.
      Now he just pulled the trigger, and kept it in for as long as it was needed. His shields decreased in strength, but he didn't care, he knew that he would win, that the plasma rifle that the Engineer had taken control of wouldn't shoot through his shields, that he would fix the situation that was created when he needed to change clips in his weapon. Evading by sidestepping wasn't anything that was difficult for Awacar, and he did so at random when he had to reload. He started to empty his second clip as three shots rapidly hit him, and his shields would only take one more after that. The needler sent out a message to him, that he should reload once again. A few purple shots left his weapon last of all, and he choosed to not do anything, just dive into the snow, awaiting the sound of twenty needles that would explode almost in unison. Before he was completely covered by the snow, two plasma rifle shots hit his chest, so therefore he was wounded.

Awacar:
      "I suggest a temporal break, just see to it that we keep ourselves at the top of our capability."

      His orders were welcome; they all knew that they would face their deaths if they continued. Depending on health remaining, the supplies were split up.

      "Agony and Retaliation, do you read me? Repeat, do you read me?" Awacar asked.

      "Yes, we copy. What do you need?" the commander of the ship asked via comm. link.

      "Reinforcements and supplies for later use." Awacar replied.

      "It's impossible to land anything in your area, you know it. You'll have to make your way to the next area and keep guard there, so that we can send a gravity-lift down. Please hurry, the Forerunners are on their way to that area, and the Humans will be taking ground there too, I think." the commander said.

Awacar:
      "In that case, I want what you have up there, there's no other way that we'll make it."

Commander:
      "You'll have what we've got, I promise you that, but first you'll have to secure their way down."

      "We're on it!" Awacar ended.

      "Okay people, here's the status. No reinforcements can reach us here, so we'll need to get to the next valley, where the ground is plainer, but where resistance will swarm over us as Flood would swarm over a corpse. We'll have to fight until reinforcements arrive, that's our only chance." Awacar informed, and a sound could be heard, only indicating disappointment among the forces.

      They get on the move, and follow a path into a valley with a plain ground, and a big hill at the other end. To the right side of them, at twenty meters distance, there was another passage, but they didn't go for it. Everyone directly saw that the hill was perfect as a place to land extra troops.
      The Covenant ran to, and took control of the hill, without any resistance. As they took their individual positions, eight Pelicans slowly sank down through the air, and finally took ground in the middle of the area. But the Humans weren't going for the hill all alone, the Forerunners flowed in to the valley too.

      "Awacar to Anger and Retaliation, please hurry, we have a situation here!" Awacar said before throwing a grenade at a Human.

      Everyone that took part of the following fight knew that the ones in control of the hill were probably the ones that had the best chance to landing reinforcements. The king of the hill would win this battle.

      As unbelievable amounts of MA5B shots were flying through the air, seemingly for nothing, the Forerunners came close, and their weapons were fired at the Human group, which was forced to evacuate. Now, all the eyes of the Forerunners had only one thing to concentrate on; the hill. They closed in, and as they did, the Agony and Retaliation flew over the valley, locked its position, and sent down a gravity-lift.
      Master Chief kicked an UNSC solider unconscious, and took his grenades, but he let the Human live, after all, he was still a Human. After this, he used a grenade to get a free passage back to the Covenant forces by throwing it at an Engineer. He was lucky; the Forerunner had already been damaged, and was therefore killed by the detonation, as well as three of his companions. After a fast rush, he was back with the Covenant.

Awacar:
      "Agony and Retaliation, what are you doing up there, send us the reinforcements sometime!"

      "We're sorry Awacar, but we'll have to secure the gravity platform into the ground, else way it will slide on the snow then we send the people down. The platform will automatically secure itself, but it will take a few minutes." the commander informed.

      "We don't have minutes, send the forces now!" Awacar barked.

      "I'm sorry, but you know what happens if the connection between ship and platform breaks, it equals a hell lot of lost infantry. I'll do you the favour of not securing the platform to 100%, it will be secured to 90%, keeping the time down to three minutes instead of five. That's all I can do." the commander informed.

      "I know that you can do more than that, you have some drop ships." Awacar pointed out.

Commander:
      "Okay, you'll get four drop ships at your command, fully loaded with infantry. I'll order the ships to back you up until all of the extra forces are down there. I can also inform you that the Betrayers are flying in, so if you can keep the Forerunners away until that, your job will be easier."

      "Great Commander, thanks. Out." Awacar said to end the dialogue.

      The pressure at the front grew larger, and the Forerunner Bio-tanks backed off to get an easier shot. All of the remaining Hunters, they were ten, was ordered to fire at the Bio-tanks while the rest of the Covenant did what they could to stay in control of the hill. As Awacar drew his sword through the throats of two Commandos, he saw a lot of drop ships that was about to land infantry. Awacar didn't dare to hope that it was the reinforcements that he had sent for, and it wasn't, but it was okay, if the Forerunners could relax their itchy trigger fingers on something else than his forces, he was happy.

      Hunters, Elites and Brutes in masses had been sent down to fight for the Blood Faction, and they did it really good. This was the first time that Awacar was glad about the fact that the Betrayers could fight. Green shots were fired from the Betrayers, looking as falling stars in small scale, that sent out green light over the Forerunners, but also sent them to their deaths. The Brutes were seen advancing through the opposing force, Elites shot everything that filled the criteria of being resistance to the Blood Faction, and the Hunters fired their shots into the large groups of Forerunners that still remained. Awacar ordered an attack, and got it in the form of fifteen Brutes, who made way by using their plasma rifles. Engineers, Commandos and Snipers fell when hit, just because of the pain, and afterwards, they were killed.
      Meanwhile, the Master Chief returned the fire of a Human, killing it. He picked up the rocket launcher that belonged to the fallen solider. When the Chief lifted his eyes from the Human, he saw tens of drop ships that slowly went down, fighting in the air, but he couldn't decide which were Covenant and which were Betrayer drop ships.

      "Can you tell me which drop ships that carry our reinforcements?" he asked an Elite.

      "Two of those at the other side of the fighting group is Covenant, as well as the one closest to us. There are two drop ships between the one I just described and the last one. The last one is in the middle." the Elite replied.

      Now, MC knew what he would use his newly conquered rocket launcher, and shot two drop ships down before he had to go looking fore more rockets. The source of rockets, the Humans, suddenly attacked him. Together with a few Brutes, he took them out. As the situation calmed down, Master Chief looked for rockets, and they were there. It was a stash that laid on the ground, and he used it properly.
      Three more Betrayer drop ships had to feel the hardness of ground, and because of that, they went up in flames. The rest of the infantry kept the remaining drop ships busy, and had them making contact with the ground, the wrong way. When the last pieces of airborne resistance had to face defeat, the Covenant were reinforced by the infantry that were carried in flying ships.

Awacar:
      "I know that a welcoming is appropriate here, but we don't have the time. Can you give us a hand here?"

      They followed his will, and when they got to join the force, a smile could be seen in their faces, because they had the chance to kill several Forerunners, a chance that they, of course, took.

      "It's two minutes remaining before the gravity-lift is fixed. We'll just have to keep up." Awacar told the forces.

      An increasing in the intensity of the attacks were made from the Covenant. This was a sign of desperacy, since everyone knew what the odds for surviving in two more minutes were. It helped and the Covenant made some advancement, simply because of the more relaxed feeling in the force, nobody really cared if they missed or hit, if they were winning or losing, they just shot. The only feeling that found its way to their careless minds was hatred, pure hatred against the Forerunners and Betrayers. Awacar knew all of this would happen if he told them that two minutes remained, and therefore lied. Only one minute was differing the Covenant from their reinforcements, and that little lie helped the forces to hold out for one last minute.
      When the first Covenant were on their way down, more Forerunners entered the valley. They weren't able to fire at such a distance, and empowered by their rage they stormed forwards. In their eyes, it was a humiliation to them as an alliance when the Covenant dared to take place at the hill, as they saw as their rightful property, and the Forerunners was about to take it back from the ones that had stolen it from them.
      With a burning desire, they fought their way towards the hill, never even looking on the ones that they killed, the Forerunners only kept focus on the hill and the ones on it. From above, it looked like an arrow that cut through soft flesh when the Forerunners, with Bio-tanks in the lead, advanced through the resistance.

      "Hit the ground running! They wish you dead, see to it that they will be. Everyone of us should have a kill when this battle is over, the one that hasn't gets punished." Awacar said as he tried to encourage the ones that had joined.

      The Forerunner arrow hit the bone of the resistance; the Covenant force. Two Bio-tanks had been given orders to put the one that seemed to be the Commander here out of action. As their eyes swept through the battlefield, they saw an Elite in yellow shields, wielding a sword, and with fierce pride, bring his resistance to its death. It didn't get better when the Forerunners saw that their comrades that was put under the edge of the sword. Their enemy of choice was Awacar. They approached him, and he was just about to slice a Commander in two. When he did, quick fire was launched, and the one shot that hit him bringed his shields off line. Awacar returned the fire with a burning, blue grenade, and a volley of needles. But these explosives were spread at the Forerunners, and none was taken out. He was forced to back off, and call for reinforcements.

      "I'd like to see ten fuel rod cells twenty-five meters north of my position. Will you do it, Hunters?" Awacar ordered.

      "They're in the air!" a Hunter said, and when he stopped speaking, ten detonations in quick order, seeming as one big, leaved green, glowing gas, and the Forerunners were torn to shreds by them.

      Master Chief encountered a Hunter and two Elites, and had to do it with an AR. This wouldn't work, so he shot a needler out of the hands of one Elite. He fired two clips from his weapon at each of the two black Elites that he engaged and one of them was without weapon. As he did this, the Elite that still could fire did so with his plasma rifle before facing his death. Wisely enough, MC choosed to hold his fire against the Hunter that closed in, the Chiefs health indicator shined yellow for the moment. He let his shields recharge, got on his feet and looked for a pistol, and one lied there, hundred feet from him. He made a rush for it, but had to change direction, the Hunter tried to stop him. Just before the Chief would make a jump to reach the gun, a blast blew it away, as well as taking his shields down, and making a special area of his HUD to change colour into red. Panic started to spread through his body; he needed a weapon. He desperately looked for it, but only saw Forerunners fighting Covenant; the Humans had been killed long ago. The pistol appeared as his only option, and he made it. Without having to evade any rod gun shots, he rushed for the pistol and picked it up. The Hunter came closer, and it was about to melee the MC when the Human started falling backwards, and before his head was caught by the snow, he was exposed to the orange area on the Hunter, and shot at it from below.

Awacar:
      "Hey, Chief, give us a helping hand here. By the way, what have you been doing?"

      "I've flied solo for a while." Master Chief replied.

Cortana:
      "Ahemm..."

Master Chief:
      "Sorry Cortana, but you don't shoot for me, right?"

      "Okay, I can take that, but 'flied solo'... hmpff..." Cortana said while feeling disgraced.

      "Well, you'll have to lay your little dispute on a shelf for now, help us with the Forerunners." Awacar ordered.

      Awacar and the Master Chief went for the Engineers at the other side of the hill, since a massive shooting of grenades took place from there, slowly tearing the Covenant force down.

      They got to the other side, and watched the team of five Engineers stand there and try to defend themselves the best they could. Awacar ordered a team of Brutes to take them out.

      "Please, great Awacar, let us handle them." It was a Grunt who spoke.

      "Why?" Awacar asked.

      "We've been waiting for a battle of our own a very long time. We think that the time has come; we will win. Besides, the Forerunners have been pushing us down a lot of times, acting like they rule the universe. Sure, we'll have a great numerous advantage, and the meaning will just be symbolic, but to see the infused fear in their eyes, as they have seen in ours countless times, would have a great symbolic value to us. And to know that we, Grunts, bringed down a team of Forerunners, that is big, and the most harsh humiliation of them that we can ever make." the Grunt leader said.

      "Okay, they're yours." Awacar said, with proudness in his voice, he liked the initiative from the Grunts, and liked them a lot.

      Nearly thirty Grunts ran down the hill, throwing all of their grenades and firing plasma pistol shots and needler rounds. The Engineers didn't like facing the feeling of not being in control, or facing their deaths. Literally, a bomb-carpet was created by grenades, and a needle wall approached the Forerunners, that soon had to realize the fact that they've lost to Grunts.

Awacar:
      "Now when we all had a little fun, shall we go on?"

To Be Continued...

Authors note:If I changed the name of the ship from Anger and Retaliation to Agony and Retaliation, I'm sorry, I can't find any "Anger" when I read through it quickly, but it is "Agony".





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