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Soldiers of Infamy: Part 1
Posted By: mr ninja<theflamingspaceninja@yahoo.com>
Date: 25 August 2003, 2:28 AM


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Soldiers of Infamy



"Part 1: Which Way?"



Three marines stood on a beach to what appeared to be an ocean, just looking around... their Warthog had flipped itself while they were driving across it... a rock got in the way, the front left wheel hit it and went up, and so did the rest of the jeep. Luckily they all jumped out in time and the only problem they had was a flipped Warthog...

"So... uh... what now?" one of the marines said, his voice a little bewildered and in shock of what just happened... He was Kyle Peters, a grunt of a marine that was one of the only three survivors from a lifeboat that fled the Pillar of Autumn during the Covenant's attack, he was an adept sniper as well as a good all around soldier.

"I'm not sure." Replied the second marine, his name was Allen Powel, he was a fully trained vehicular pilot, and naturally he was the pilot of the lifeboat that had crashed. He was also the driver of the flipped Warthog... before it flipped.

"What if we... flip it back over?" the third marine commented. He was James Henderson, a walking cliche, he was the fast talking and rather ignorant kid in a group of roughnecks, and he's only been in the UNSC Marine Corps for eighteen months and the Pillar of Autumn was his first off planet assignment.

Powel scratched his head and looked at the flipped Warthog. "Yeah, yeah... looks like we'll have to. Peters," Powel pointed to the front of the vehicle, "you take that side, and I'll take this." They both moved in place, Peters at the front and Powel at the back.

"What should I do?" Henderson looked at the two as they were getting in position to lift.

"Um..." Powel looked over his shoulder at Henderson, "Just take the middle..."

Henderson moved to the middle and crouched down to get a grip on the edge of the jeep. He
nodded and looked at the two of them... Powel nodded.

"At the count of three..."

They focused a bit more, getting in a ready position.

"One..."

Their grips tightened...

"Two..."

Sweat was dripping down their faces from the blistering hot heat as they finally readied their strength and moved their legs into position...

"Three!"

They huffed and all at once they started lifting, it was a strain but eventually the Warthog got on its side, at that point Powel started pushing with his back trying to get it to topple over onto its wheels... They succeeded in getting the Warthog in an upright position, after what seemed to be hours in strain, soaked in sweat, but were merely a minute and some odd seconds. They sat down beside the Warthog, trying to get as much shade as possible. Powel reached into the back of the jeep, where the mounted .50 caliber gattling gun was positioned and pulled out three canteens from the jeep's cooler and passed them around... They all drank some, being conservative enough to save the water for later use.

"Whew..." Powel wiped sweat off of his brow and looked around. "So, where do we go, now?" He looked at Henderson and Peters for an answer.

Peters just shrugged, "The way we've been going for the past few hours..." He points off down the beach. "That way?"

Powel nodded and stood up, he moved over to the other side of the Warthog and sat down in the driver's seat. He started the engine and revved it a little bit. "So, is everything cleaned up form the crash?" He looked around at the sandy beach... he pointed out Henderson's helmet and a few assault rifle magazines that were thrown off and scattered about. Peters and Henderson retrieved them and got to the jeep. Henderson sat himself in the side seat of the Warthog as Peters got in the back and sat beside the machine gun, nuzzling into a comfortable and stable position.

Powel looked back at Peters and over to Henderson. "We ready?" Henderson nodded as he reached behind him and took out an assault rifle, loading it with a magazine as Peters reached to the same place for another AR; he too loaded in a magazine. They both nodded and in response Powel slammed the petal to the metal, switched it into gear, and zoomed down the beach.
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It was half an hour until they stopped again, this time for a change of direction.

"Well," Peters was looking at the HUD of his gun... he looked up in the sky, shading his eyes from the sun. "That gas giant is off... that way..." He pointed off into the mainland, which was no longer covered in trees but now what appeared to be grasslands as far as the eye could see, the planet could be seen off in the distance.

Powel nodded and turned the wheel to the left and gunning the gas, speeding off into the grassy plains.
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They traveled for about an hour, going through these massive plains until something caught Peters' eye... He sat up and looked off to the right, "Hey, Al, stop for a sec and look over to the right."

Powel slowly stopped and looked in the direction... what he saw amazed him, it was what appeared to be a giant blue beam being shot into the air... "What the hell...?" He moved his hand to the center console bringing it back up with a pair of binoculars. He stood in his seat and zoomed in towards that direction, but all he could see was the beam, it seemed to be shot every 15 seconds or so, apparently it was hidden behind some cliffs so as he couldn't see where it was originating from.

"What do you think it is?" Henderson asked, staring off into the distance with a bewildered look on his face.

"Um..." Powel brought the binoculars down and handed them to Henderson. "My guess is a flare of some sort..."

Peters stood up and squinted a bit... "Looks like a large plasma shot... it could be some kind of Covie SAM..." He scratched his chin and looked at Powel.

"No... it's being fired to regularly to be a weapon..." He shrugs and sits back down. "How's say we check it out?"

Peters sat down and nodded, Henderson put the binoculars away and nodded as well. Powel turned the Warthog right and started speeding off in the direction of the flare...





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