Battle for Tectron: Chapter 2-A Helljumper's story part 2
Posted By: Helljumper<PittKlipse@aol.com>
Date: 16 December 2003, 7:00 AM
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One of the marines was hit by a plasma bolt and fell to the ground dead. The other two began running down the street and turned the corner. Marcus ran to the back door that he had first entered. He unlocked the door and dashed out into the alley. He saw the Marines run pass the alley. He ran to join up with them. He exited the alley and was now running behind the two marines. Plasma blasts hit a wall next to Marcus. He stopped knelt and fired at the Elite that had fired at him. The Elite's shields fluttered from the contact with bullets but soon gave out. Bullets entered the alien's torso and it soon dropped dead.
The two marines who were running had stopped and faced Marcus. They were surprised that he was out of his armor and was wearing an ODST beret instead of a tactical helmet. They saw Grunts down the street and fired at them. Marcus used the covering fire to catch up to the other marines. After the Grunts were dead, the three marines ducked into another building. They proceeded to the back of the building and out the back into the alley.
"Thanks back there," commented one of the marines. Marcus faced the two tired marines. He noticed that they lacked the ODST emblem like the one on his beret anywhere on their uniforms. They were regular marines. The Helljumpers were trained to believe that they were superior to the average marine, and in theory they were, but in combat everyone was equal and everyone could die. The marines noticed the Lt bars on Marcus's beret. "I mean thanks back there, sir." The marine corrected himself.
Marcus looked at him strangely and then remembered that he was wearing the officer ranks. It was weird to him, that another marine had just called him sir, but it felt kind of good. "Its ok marine, what unit are you guys with?"
"We are with Fox company, 308th infantry battalion stationed abroad the USNC carrier the Defender of Life, sir." The other marine said after regaining his breath.
"Where is the rest of your unit?" Marcus asked.
"We were dropped in by Pelican on the west side of town to hold the main road into town. The Covenants used the field on that side of town to land Wraiths and a battalion of infantry. We mined the road to town and took out most of their Wraiths but that's not before they mortared most of the western part of town and most of our company. Our CO and our first sergeant were killed. Our platoon leaders ordered us to fall back into town. First platoon held the school and second platoon held the mayor's office. The Covies hit us hard and fast. They killed all of first platoon. We tried to hold the mayor's office but we couldn't. Our Lt was killed and our platoon sergeant ordered us to fallback before he died. We followed our squad leader down main street, but he was just killed back there."
Marcus took in their story. He didn't know that the Defender of Life was in space above the planet, but he concluded that it must have arrived to help the Twilight. Marcus asked the Marines, "Do you guys have names?"
"I am Private first class Thomas Gaius, sir."
"I'm Private Julio Castro, sir."
"I'm second lieutenant Marcus Whitman. It's good to meet you guys. I started to believe that I was the only marine left alive in this stinking town."
The other two marines laughed and then stopped. Julio worked up the courage to ask Marcus the same question that they were thinking. "Sir, where is your platoon?"
"I'm with Bravo Company, 21st ODST battalion stationed aboard the UNSC carrier Twilight. My platoon was sent in to assist the evacuation of bankers from a bank not too far from here. Our transport Pelican left with the noncombatants and promised to return to pick us up. The Covies attacked. Everyone in my platoon is dead. I barely made it out."
"What do we do now, El-tee?" Private Castro asked, while he loaded a fresh magazine into his assault rifle. Marcus was now regretting taking the Lt. William's ranks. These two marines were now looking at him for leadership. He asked himself, what would Lt. Williams do? The answer popped into his head. The battle hardened ODST officer would tell the men to set up ambushes and try to slow the Covenant progress through the town. This won't do. The enemy was too numerous and they won't last long in a firefight. If only they had some Warthogs, he would suggest that they head to the airfield. He decided to relay this information to the marines. Private Thomas quickly replied. "We saw several Pelicans fly over the town heading up to the north. They had Warthogs attached. They were in a descending formation, they had to be landing. It couldn't have been more than five minutes ago."
"We should start heading north. We'll stick to the alleys and try not to engage the alien bastards unless we have to." Marcus said as he scanned Julio and Thomas's faces for their reaction. They nodded and readied their weapons.
The three man squad navigated through the town doing as Marcus had ordered. They passed several Covenant patrols without any contact before reaching the town square. It was an open area with a statue of an unknown man in the middle. Marcus figured that he was probably the town's founder. There were no Covenant patrols in view but Marcus didn't like the idea of trying to cross the open area. He figured that they could run but even that was a risk. His squad hid in a building facing the square. Thomas was covering the back door and Julio was covering the front while Marcus peeped through the window trying not to expose too much of his head.
The sound of Pelican thrusters could be heard throughout the town. Marcus looked to the sky to see three military green Pelicans flying in a V formation. From his view, the three Pelicans were small but growing larger as they approached from the north side of town. Plasma fire ignited the sky as green streaks of plasma flew towards the Pelicans. The lead Pelican took a large plasma bolt to the cockpit and blew up. The other two broke formation trying to avoid the Covenant antiaircraft fire. The Pelican on the right received a plasma blast to its right wing and started into a descending spin. It crashed into a building and exploded into flames. The last Pelican tried to gain altitude but took a shot to its tail. Smoke trailed from the wounded dropship as it started to fall through the sky. It flew towards Marcus's position. The pilot tried to slow the descent of the Pelican by reversing the thrusters so that they pointed straight down to the ground, but it wasn't enough. The dropship hit the street and slid twenty five meters before it collided with the statue of the town's founder and stopped.
The dust settled allowing Marcus to see the downed dropship. He knew that he had to get to the troop transport and check for survivors. He turned to his squad. "Ok listen up this is the plan," he began. "Thomas you cover the left side of the street, and Julio take the right side. We'll haul ass to the dropship. I'll go inside and check for survivors. Use the Pelican as cover and fire at any Covies that you see." The other marines nodded. With the way these marines fought and obeyed orders, they could have easily been Helljumpers.
Marcus dashed through the door followed by Thomas and then Julio. His rifle was slung across his back as he quickly covered the distance between their former hide out and the crashed Pelican. He reached his objective before the other two since they were running with their rifles pointed down the two sides of the street. Marcus entered the Pelican through the side hatch. The interior was illuminated by a dim red emergency light. The troop bay was empty. The Pelican must have dropped off its cargo and was probably returning back to space.
Gunfire and plasma fire erupted outside the ship. Julio and Thomas were trying to defend their position. Marcus entered the cockpit to find the unconscious pilot. She was leaning over the controls but still strapped into her seat. The ODST checked her pulse, she was alive. He released her straps and pulled her out of the seat. She was small and light so he lifted her up onto his right shoulder and headed out of the dropship. Julio and Thomas looked at him. He nodded towards an alley on the opposite side of the street. They ran to the alley. Thomas was the last to enter as plasma fire grazed by him. A lucky shot hit him in the shoulder. He screamed in pain and grasped the wound with his hand.
The squad continued running down the alley before dipping into another building. This building was once a dress store. The three marines ducked behind the counter that stretched along the right side of the store. Purple triangular light penetrated the store and moved across its four walks. The light moved back and front before it disappeared. Julio looked up once the Covenant flashlights were gone. Two Hunters walked away from their new hide out. They were lucky. With none of the marines having grenades, the Hunters would have killed them quickly.
Marcus laid the pilot down on the ground. The female Warrant Officer started to come through. Her eyes opened revealing beautiful blue eyes that stared up at the Marcus. She rubbed her head and started to move. She sat up against the wall and looked around at the three marines. "Thank you," she said to the man who had just saved her life.
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