Shadow Part1: Encounter
Posted By: MasterSushi<mastersushifp@hotmail.com>
Date: 13 September 2004, 4:19 PM
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Shadow and his squad trudged through the forest. A stripped down battle rifle on his back, a pistol and a few dozen knives round his waist, this would be an easy operation. To destroy technology that could lead to the destruction of Earth. If it weren't his duty he'd be insulted. If he wasn't getting paid that is. Everything could lead to the destruction of Earth. He'd heard of the 'black' project involving certain Spartans. 'Black'. He chuckled to himself quietly. Everyone in Tetrao knew about it. Everyone in Tetrao knew about everything. More than those ONI folks. Fewer people knew about Tetrao then about. He knew they had contemplated using him in the project. As a trainer or fighter he didn't know. He would have liked to get to know the Spartan-117 he'd heard of, he knew they would have gotten on great. But they had been having trouble with it. Something about them being too good. He'd read a few 'black' obituaries concerning the trainers. But he probably would have refused the proposition if it had come. His place was in Tetraodontidae. A hunter. In command of a lethal four man squad. Ruthless and merciless. Trained only to neutralize. Never to wound -always to kill.
He glanced over his shoulder at his squad. Hammer, a bald headed explosives expert. A backpack on his back was packed with explosives and he was covered with guns of every size. His weapons expert Pestis, was fitted head to toe with the largest of weapons. In his hands he carried an M90 pump action shotgun. His sniper was a girl. Beautiful she may be, but this was no place for a lady. But if she could do her job well then she was more then welcome. Sparrow did not carry an S2 AM or any other standard issue rifles. Her rifle, he noticed, seemed totally custom made. By the looks of the accessories on her belt, the rifle seemed to have totally interchangeable barrels, scopes, rounds and rests.
He turned his attention to his surroundings; they must be getting close. This was beautiful woodland. For how long? They had worked out their plan thanks to satellite pictures. Sparrow would lie on a ridge on one side of the small placement while Hammer and would stand on an identical ridge on the opposite side of the post. Sparrow would snipe while Hammer and Pestis would lay down large amounts of suppressive fire. Shadow would infiltrate a small hut and retrieve the disc with this so-called 'tribulation technology' on it. Once recovered, Hammer would dig up an M19 SSM previously buried by a recon team. It would have ammunition to destroy each building in the miniature forest complex.
Shadow halted in his tracks. He held up a closed fist. "Patrol," he growled. They knew what to do in this situation. It was a typical training exercise, just in reality. The sniper dove into the bushes on one side of the dirt path and the experts did the same on the converse side. Then Shadow, unaided, leapt up to an abnormal height of many, many metres into the overhanging branches. The three troops had heard of the almost legendary Shadow. That he had a deformed bone structure and remarkable muscles that enabled him to move at incredible speed with tremendous reflexes and agility. Now they watched in awe at the spectacle, before returning to their task. Shadow perched like a bird watching the path below him. He saw a squad of six lightly armoured aliens proceed towards him. One at point and one at rear with two pairs marching side by side. They each carried rifles of an unknown origin.
Time to have some fun. Shadow dropped almost unrealistically from that height and landed silently. He pulled out a stylish combat knife and looked for half a second at his target, the rear man. He found the weak slit between the seal of the helmet and the shoulder pads and stabbed the knife through it. Just as he had done many a time before, the knife sliced straight through the gullet and the vocal cords so that when the victim screamed, only a quiet gurgling noise could be heard. Blood spurted across his hand and he knew though not the best move in these circumstances it was an effective one.
Unfortunately the other strangers heard the noise and turned, weapons raised. Four shots fired and downed the four men in the middle. Shadow leapt at the remainder and slammed him to the ground. He wrenched off the helmet to see what they were up against. What he saw was indescribable and horrific. Even the battle hardened Shadow retched at it. He stood off it as Sparrow pulled a small, long, thin camera to take a photo of the unknown specimen. Then Shadow raised a sidearm and fired a shot in the centre of the creature, and after seeing how it responded to the wound finally fired a 13mm bullet into the atrocity's forehead. They turned and made their way to the edge of the camp. It was set in a small clearing and presumably it had been built into a dell to make it harder to spot. All the better for them.
Hammer, Pestis and Sparrow moved to the appropriate ridges while Shadow waited for his team to open fire. Sparrow wriggled up the outcropping and obtained a good outlook on the base. See fitted a 2-5-10x zoom and loaded 14.4mm high AP rounds into the rifle. She clicked a long slender barrel into place and thumbed of the safety. Then she caressed the trigger with her fingers and waited for a target to come into view.
Hammer and Pestis moved onto the other crest. Pestis unclipped a heavy minigun from his back while Hammer started digging for the launcher. As Pestis showered the base with bullets the targets ran behind cover. Sitting ducks.
Needle saw the targets crouch behind buildings and sheets of metal. She fired a shot at each one and saw heads detonate in an explosion of dark bluish blood.
Shadow was already inside the hut. A strange machine was upright on one of the walls. He took a chance and tried to use some of his hacking skills. Bingo. A pentagonal disk ejected itself from a slot on the top of the machine. He put it in a small pouch and turned to the door. A creature came in, presumably taking cover from the fire they had attracted. It shut the door and seeing the intruder dressed in black, brought up its weapon. It slammed the but of its rifle down onto Shadow's shoulder. He was surprised by the creature's strength but he'd felt worse. He wrestled the creature against the door. Then he pulled out his sidearm and six shots echoed into the chest of the creature. He slung the being to the floor and fired another shot between the eyes just in case.
He ran outside to see how they were doing. Hammer and Pestis were covering him as he clambered up the hill to meet them. As he did so a tiny, strange worm-like animal hit his shoulder. It started burrowing it's way into his shoulder padding, but he ripped it off. He quickly swung out his custom, single shot battle rifle. It was stripped down for weight. It would only fire single shot that he would conserve ammo and carry less. One shot was all he need. The neck of the creature cracked with the impact and the body dropped to the leaf littered ground in a heap. Shadow gave a signal and Hammer hefted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder and fired several shots. The explosions levelled the buildings and killed whatever survivors there may have been left.
They waited a minute or so and then regrouped in the middle of the clearing. There was a snuffle to the side of them and they saw that one of the creatures was barely injured. "Take it alive." Called Shadow, and Hammer swung the but of the rocket launcher into the thing's head. The thing, unconscious, was then hauled onto Hammers shoulders. Pestis took some gun samples and was about to put some of the small bullet-like creatures into his pouch but changed his mind when they shredded through his gloves and nibbled his fingers. Sparrow took a photo of them and they moved back to the edge of forest. A pelican promptly picked them up and they were whisked of to Tetraodontidae base for a check up and their next orders. And more importantly their pay.
To be continued...
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