Part 1: The Lay of the Land
Date: 20 September 2005, 1:50 am
On the covenant carrier, Hanni, all the jackals got ready as they put on their armor, ready for a spec-ops mission. A jackal's Covenant name is Kig-Yar. The human's degrading name for us is jackal. As a few Kig-Yar got their beam rifles ready, others were making sure their shields worked properly. The Sangheili got their armor on, for they would be accompanying us on our mission. The elite leader was lecturing his men on something about loyalty. Loyalty to the prophets. The Prophet of Truth. The Prophet of Regret. The Prophet of Mercy. I do not owe them loyalty. They allowed the Jiralhanae to come into our army. I, however, do not mind the Yanme'e. I do not understand their language very well, but they seem like good allies. In the middle of all the commotion, I heard a Sangheili say something.
"Alright! This is it! Were being dropped via Phantoms into the forest section of the sacred Ring. If anyone finds any heavy resistance, fall back and call for help. I don't want to have this ring fall victim to the Humans this time. Right now we haven't notified the Prophets about the discovery of this ring because our communications and navigation control have been knocked out. All we can do is dock on this ring and hope the Oracle will help us. We have been getting readings of Human resistance on this ring. The Unggoy will not be accompanying us on this mission. The only things they do are sleep and get killed. Anyway, you will be dropped in squads. 7 to a group. 1 sniper, 1 commander, 5 others- 2 major, 3 minor. Good luck.
As the Phantom was speeding over the terrain, I thought, "Why am I here?" Then I answered, "Duty." Then I thought," What duty do I have to an army that lets betrayers come into our Holy City and roam free?" I thought for a while then figured out that I couldn't answer that. The Phantom slowed as we got near the landing zone. We lined up at the gravitational lift at the rear of the craft. I was nervous, even though we were going into an area with no resistance.
I landed then we headed straight for an area with some fallen trees and downed Human aircraft. We searched the area. There were no Humans. We put the sniper and 2 minor Jackals at the top of a hill to spot any Human resistance. The Sangheili commander directed us to secure the area around the landing zone. Everything seemed quiet.
For the next 30 Human minutes, the commander was pondering what to do next. He then said to go forward until we got to a river. He was carrying a paper that had the layout of the area of the part of the sacred Ring we were on. I guess the Phantoms surveyed the area before we got dropped. We walked for a long while. We were in an area dense with trees when we heard an explosion. It sounded like a plasma grenade. A jackal's shield went off a split second after that. In training, we heard what Human weapons sounded like. I could hear a Human SNB, or was it SMG? Yes that's it. We headed for cover and set up an ambush. 2 jackals brought up the rear, the commander, a major jackal, and I were in the front, and the sniper and the 1 minor jackal were in the trees somewhere. The typical technique for a sniper and a regular jackal was for both to go prone and the regular jackal was to put his shield in front of both with the beam rifle through the notch in the shield.
We were all ready, but there was no more sound. We heard a Human voice say, "Get back to the CP and we'll stay for the night. We'll sleep in shifts and to make sure no one dies."
We heard retreating footsteps and the roar of a Human vehicle that I couldn't remember the name of. Then all was quiet. We waited for a while until we relaxed. The commander told us that we would follow the Humans back to their "CP" at nightfall. Until then, I want everyone to wait until I find out the possible places where the Humans could be. Everyone, be reading your soldiers handbook about the Human infantry. Make sure your gear works and explore the land, but don't stray from the group.
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