All For Nothing.
Posted By: Liam Quigley<mousecity1@yahoo.com>
Date: 31 December 2003, 5:15 AM
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The year was 2553. The covenant have found Earth. The battle that mankind had been preparing for, mentally and physically for many years was about to take place. Ever since Reach was lost to the covenant there was a general sense of utter distress among man, specifically on Earth. The battle between the humans and covenant can be compared to a simple human baseball game played by two very unfairly balanced teams. You would like to think your team was going to win, but you knew that it just wasn't going to happen. Sure, your team scored in the second inning, but you're still losing. That reality was smacked down hard on mankind, in the form of Biorely lasers glassing the earth's surface. As a human you knew your time had come. Unless something very big happened very fast. As a marine defending the earth you felt that there was no point in running, not because you would be killed for deserting, but because there was nowhere to run. In your eyes, this was mankind's final battle. This was it. The covenant and humans had so little in common with each other they killed each other even more vigorously. Besides the covenants obvious technological advantages they also had the advantage of a seemingly endless religious drive to kill everything in their path.
***
Northern Europe had changed very little since the pre-SS (sustainable spacetravel) years and many of the old relics from that time were still standing. SGT. Cooley's platoon had been ordered to defend Big Ben, a famous clock tower from the pre-SS era. Obviously, Europe was still under human control, and also human's confident enough to have marines defending old inaccurate clocks. The Platoon of fifteen had already been issued a warthog and armed personal carrier. Both of these ground vehicles were still fairly clean, since the platoon hadn't seen any action yet. They were fresh out of VR training, the standard training procedure for any UNSC marine. Fighting between humans came to a sudden halt after sustainable spacetravel was discovered and the UNSC formed. Private Simmons was assigned a sniper rifle to keep an eye out for covenant midway up the tower. Anti-Aircraft fire dotted the sky, aiming for countless banshees and Covenant dropships coming from the north heading towards Africa to reinforce the troops there. "Why would they need reinforcements?" asked private Collins. Collins was a very skinny marine, who moved from Barbados to join the UNSC. "How the hell should I know?" replied Simmons.
***
Suddenly there was a huge muffled thud as an anti-aircraft missile struck a covenant dropship. "Whoa! Nice one!" yelled Collins. "Uh... that's not a good thing". The dropship was coming down fast, straight at the clock tower. It was heavily damaged, but just enough so it wasn't able to fly. No doubt there were some very angry covenant inside. "Ready assault rifles marines! And take cover!" Simmons screamed. "That thing is comin' straight for us!". The marines were smart enough to take cover and by the time the dropship hit the ground in front of the clock tower most of them were ready for a fight. As the dust and smoke cleared it became evident that there were surviving covenant inside. Simmons crept up to the smocking ship and tossed a flash/bang grenade into the left troop pod. Three seconds later the grenade still hadn't gone off and loud bangs were coming from the right pod. "Damnt! another dud!, four of you go check out that sound. Yell if you see any thing!" Suddenly a group of grunts came spilling around the corner screaming and yelling alien curses. They were all silenced by short bursts of assault rifle fire. "Typical grunts" said Simmons. Suddenly a marine closer to the right pod of the dropship was struck down by plasma fire. The blue bolts singing the ground around him as the marines moved around to the right of the dropship. "Fire at will!" yelled Simmons. The marine closest to the right pod was hit by a plasma burst and the rest of the marines quickly moved around to return fire on a lone elite, just recovering from the crash. His energy shield quickly cracked and fizzed away from the combined firepower of thirteen assault rifles. He stood for a moment then fell to the ground, his armor clanking around him. "I think that was it!" yelled one of the marines.
***
A large crescent shaped ship suddenly appeared overhead, sending an ominous shadow over the entire area. "Holy-S" Simmons was cut short as a huge bean swept over the entire area glassing everything, including the marines. Buildings crumbled and melted away, sending huge plums of earth upward into the sky. This is the plight of the UNSC. This is the plight of mankind.
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