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A Spartan's Path - chapter 12
Posted By: Myth
Date: 11 January 2004, 12:22 AM


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0156 hours, (Military Calendar)
Dublin, Ireland
UNSC ONI "Stronghold" base
Level three underground = STATUS: under attack



       John rolled out of the way of a hail of armor piecing rounds that the creature unleashed. Will fired a burst which threw the thing back two steps. Kelly knelt next to him and they both fired out their magazines. The alien roared and raised a fragmentation grenade. It threw the explosive into the Spartan line. "Everybody down!" the Chief ordered. Shrapnel rocketed out in every direction. John rose with his rifle up. His motion tracer read clear, save the green blots indicating friendlies. "Cortana, Active camouflage?" he asked. "No, he's gone." She replied. John took several steps forward. The head of the admiral had been dropped, if any other person was in his position, they would have probably vomited and looked away, but John showed no emotion even under his helmet. He had seen much worse: the Flood. The Spartan turned and crouched at the ravaged body of the man. It had been searched; a few key cards and his sidearm had been thrown aside. "It didn't find what it was looking for, but I fear that other officers will be in danger." Cortana warned. John knew what it was looking for, and he had it. The coordinates were safe. "What was it anyway?" John asked. "Unknown, somewhere close to a Brute, but obviously a bounty hunter." Will sat against a wall, clutching his shoulder, blood pooling around him. John then saw a decent sized shard of shrapnel embedded into his shoulder. John locked eyes with Will and he nodded. The Chief took hold of the shard and tugged it free. A spurt of blood flew from his arm, and Kelly filled him up with biofoam. Two black armored Elites appeared down the corridor. Plasma lanced across the hallway, pinning the Spartans down with the super heated bolts. A plasma grenade primed and sailed through the air, landing squarely on SPARTAN-248's face plate. Danny's hands scratched against the explosive. Fred reached over and peeled it off, but it exploded before he could throw it. Both Spartans were thrown against the wall, gel from the MJOLNIR and blood spraying along it. Ryan opened his eyes to see his shields down to zero, the indication bar blinking and beeping red. He reached for his assault rifle and let loose a fury of armor piecing rounds into the two veterans. One fell, then the other simply disappeared without a shimmer. The wall behind the aliens was slicked with purple-black blood. SPARTAN-417 saw a brief ripple in the air; he unclipped a frag grenade off his belt and rolled it toward the shimmer. An ice blue energy sword gleamed in the air and the Elite charged, though walking right over the frag, it disappeared in a pillar of shrapnel. John crouched by Fred, his shields were permanently disabled, a few breaches in his armor but he would live, Daniel however lay sprawled across the floor in a large puddle of dark red blood. His bio meter had flat lined. John opened the fusion pack and connected a few wires, then activated the fail safe. Ryan stared at Razor's body, then looked away and jogged down the hall. A General and a few lieutenants crouched behind a barrier, popping up to fire their pistols when they could.

       General Strauss stood and fired four quick rounds then ducked. The other junior officers stood and fired off their clips, though two suffered rounds of plasma to their torsos and heads. Strauss cursed and edged his way around the barrier. He found himself in the conference room again, stepping over the dead body of the MP. Hicks lay face first on the floor, Strauss turned him over. A large hole sat where his heart was, blood weeping from it. Strauss dropped the man, and recovered his sidearm. The door the other officers used for escape was smeared with red blood. This worried Strauss, he peered down the corridor. All of the officers that 'escaped' from the conference room lay dead, littered down the way. Strauss cursed and jogged down the hallway, M6D pistol sweeping the narrow space. A flight of stairs was at the end of the corridor, the hangers were there and probably evacuating quickly. Huge holes were ripped through the conduit and ceilings above him. All of a sudden, a large creature landed in front of him. An assault rifle was hung at the thing's hip and it fired. Strauss leapt out of the way though catching a painful round in the shoulder. He winced and fired twice, then took cover. The bounty hunter Covenant alien cautiously approached Strauss's hiding, a plasma grenade clutched in his left hand. Strauss held his breath. Two Spartans appeared at the bottom of the stairs and fired assault rifles The bounty hunter flinched twice and primed the plasma grenade sticking it to its chest and it sprinted towards the two super soldiers. A third Spartan ran down the stairs, stopped half way and fired his sniper rifle from his hip. The blast detonated the grenade and killed the strange creature. The soldiers waved him forward and walked into the hanger. Strauss reached the top of the stairs to see six Spartans sitting in a pelican dropship, ready for evac. Strauss nodded to SPARTAN-117 in thanks and took one last look at the complex before the pilot brought the pelican away from the base. The structure appeared smaller and smaller and then it was engulfed in long chains of blue-white explosions. The time for the human race was drawing to a close, marine reserves were dangerously low, and the Covenant had somehow found out about Cadia, thus not yet found it, Earth would fall, and nothing would impede the vicious juggernaut of the Covenant armada...



To be continued...





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