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A Soul of Steel: Part 1
Posted By: The Scribe<nero@cinci.rr.com>
Date: 10 September 2003, 11:51 PM
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The following story was found on the empty bed of a Private Samuel Wells.
I figured that I may die in combat, so I have decided to write everything that I have encountered and been involved in up to this point. Here we go...
I enlisted as a young 18 year old, a fresh adult with big plans for my life. Ready to take on the world, I decided that the Marine Corps was the way to go. I will now skip everything before boot camp.
I do remember the first day of boot camp. I'll swear to God that I was yelled at more that day than I ever had been in my life. Our drill instructor was one of the strictest men I'd ever met. Always keeping us on the go, he made sure that we woke up sore the next morning. I will say, though, that he was the best teacher I'd ever had. News later reached me that he died on Reach. A shame.
After my training, I was shipped out and was stationed on a small planet called Hydron. Hydron was mostly made of water, so only a few small skirmishes between human and Covenant had occurred there within the five years it was occupied by anyone.
I was posted as a barracks guard just outside the small encampment were most of my fellow Marines stationed at Fort Sterling slept.
That night, I was thinking of home and my girlfriend on Earth, when a fearsome whine roared overhead. I could see pressed against the barely lit sky, a stiff cornered U shape. My stomach dropped and I cocked my assault rifle, knowing that this would be my first time in combat.
As the ship began to lower itself to the ground to drop troops, another one showed up and a few more. They all began to lower, and I hit the alarm. Shouting was heard from inside the barracks and other Marines began to get ready. I ran inside and into a room of panic and confusion.
Since, as I said before, Hydron was a minor planet and not likely to be attacked, they planted a lot of rookies there. I was one of them and we were all not knowing what to expect.
I slammed the barrack door and took cover down behind a bottom bunk. Through the door, muffled Covenant voices could be heard shouting. I tightened my grip on my gun and felt the butterflies in my stomach jolt.
Like I said, none of us knew much about combat, but these damn aliens did. The door blew in and hit one Marine I never knew. I found out later that he died.
The Covenant poured in, Grunts, Jackals, and Elites. Fortunately, most were Grunts, and were quickly mowed down the second they filled the door way. But the Elites were smarter. One of them tossed in a plasma grenade that killed two guys I knew as Nick and Pete. They were funny and would sit up at night and tell us funny stories, but I knew I would never hear another from either of their mouths.
After the deadly grenade blast, Jackals came pouring in, and even under fire, their shields stayed strong. Our bullets bounced off of them, sending the rounds flying back in our direction. Corporal Armstrong, who was firing next to me was hit by a bullet that had apparently bounced. It passed through his chest cavity and he fell back and grunted. I got down on the floor and inched just a little over to him.
"Don't stop shooting, dip shit!" he shouted at me.
I had to take orders from a commanding officer, so I did what he told me.
After only firing a few more bursts, I ran dry. After quickly grabbing a nearby plasma pistol, I aimed and fired. I had charged the blast so it slammed with full force into a nearby Jackal's shield. It quickly extinguished and the Marines' bullets ripped through its body.
"Hey!!" I shouted. "Hey!! Their own guns knock out their shields!!"
Everyone near me began scrambling for the nearest plasma pistol. After every Jackal was down, a few Elites were still standing. They were quickly taken care of when a sergeant told everyone to toss at least one grenade. After the explosions, guts and gore coated the room and the front of the barrack building had been blown off. I stood up along with my comrades and let the awkward silence settle over us.
Everybody just kind of looked around the room in shock. I ran over to Armstrong, but the last breath must have already left his body, because his eyes were glazed and were only white. I closed them with my fingers and stood up.
Sergeant Bent came hustling into our barrack, out of breath.
"They hit our barrack as well, gear up and get out, they're moving us off of Hydron. It seems the UNSC wants some 'better' people down here. Apparently, from what I've been told so far, some of the heaviest combat is occurring on Polaris. We're going there."
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