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Project Egon by Richard Watson
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Project Egon - Chapter 1
Date: 12 April 2004, 5:46 PM
Ever since the attempted invasion of Earth was prevented the covenant have been even more ruthless with their attacks. The defeat they suffered has only seemed to ever increase their thirst for victory. As a counter attack the remaining members of the Earth council had decreed that a task force of two ships to go and take out a Covenant naval and military planet code named as Egon, which is believed to be the Covenant equivalent of Reach.
Within 3 weeks of reaching Egon the UNSC forces managed to establish a foothold on the planet as well as disable the orbiting shipyard. However it has been discovered that Covenant reinforcements are on the way, so it is imperative that the ground troops gain control over the planet to stand any chance of holding off the incoming enemy ships.
Chapter 1 - One Step Closer
There was a slight breeze on the mountainous coastline of Egon. The sky was a patchwork of cloud but the sun seemed to of managed to break through just above the distant horizon. At one of the costal lookouts two elites walk out of the pillbox and inspect the surrounding sky. Two Banshees fly overhead, from the local covenant airbase, and begin their patrol.
"Beginning costal patrol," announces one of the banshees to the lookout.
"Good hunting" replies the elite in its native tongue. He then walks over to the 2nd elite.
"They will surly find them today"
"No doubt"
With that, the 1st elite heads back towards the pillbox. But within moments of him turning the 2nd covenant collapses to the ground with a bullet hole in his head. The only sound that could be heard is the distant echo of a gun shot though the canyons. The remaining elite starts to look around in confusion, and so make a dart towards the pillbox. But like his companion his is shortly greeted with a bullet in his back.
On a distant rocky outcrop the Master Chief puts down his sniper rifle and switches on his communicator.
"Pelican Alpha 359, the drop zone is clear"
"Sorry, could you say again?" replies Pelican Alpha 359 over the COM channel.
"The Drop Zone is Clear. I repeat, the Drop Zone is clear."
"Rodger that, starting our approach" relies Pelican Alpha 359
The pelican's engines fire up and it lifted off from the aircraft carrier 150 clicks out to sea. With that The Master Chief picks up his sniper rifle and starts to walk along the top of the rocky hillside.
"Hang tight, this may get a little rough," Says the pilot of Alpha 359 to the crew.
The pelican enters the scattered canyon, and starts to head towards the designated drop zone. Master chief continues to head down to the surface and rendezvous with Alpha group.
Not too far into the canyon is a large flat clearing in which Alpha 359 slows down and starts to hover. The ship lowered to about 5 foot from the surface, detached the Warthog and signalled the crew to disembark.
"Warthog deployed. Drop zone safe to disembark." Signals the pilot
"Ok Marines. Go, go, go." Ordered Cornel Hays
As the 6 marines disembarked from the pelican, 3 of them head to the warthog and started to prepare it for immediate deployment. They also took out three backpacks full of ammunition and equipment and handed them to the other marines.
"Get yourself out of here lieutenant."
"Yes sir" replied Alpha 359 which then proceeded to fly back to the aircraft carrier until further order is given.
"Ok Marines, I want a quick, tight dispersal. If they catch us napping this operation is as good as over." Shouted Cornel Hays
"Sir, yes sir!" shouted back the marines
Master Chief Walks up behind Cornel Hays
"Hays? Nice to meet you again"
"Master Chief, its always a pleasure"
"Have you briefed the Marines on our mission plan?"
"Yes sir. We're all ready to move out."
"Then lets proceed."
"Ok. You heard him boys, let move out." Ordered Hays
"Gulf, you and Bravo team take the hog and get to the target location. I'll need your team in position ASAP! The rest of you boys follow me and the Chief"
"Yes Sir, I'm on it," replied Gulf
"Sir, Yes Sir" replied the rest of the group
The Warthog roared into life and the rear wheels spun in the dry soil. Kicking up a cloud of dust the hog drove off into the hilltops, heading towards the designated target location. Meanwhile Master Chief and the remaining members of the team head west, along the canyon floor.
As Alpha team started to head further and further inland, the local geography began to flatten out, however the vegetation started to become denser and movement started to slow.
"Its at times like this that I wish we had a hover hog" remarked Hays as he continues to struggle through the grass.
"Don't worry cornel, this grass can't stretch on for much longer" replied Master Chief
"Sir! I'm detecting movement up ahead," whispered Higgins
The team halted and moved into a defensive formation.
"Higgins climb on top of that rock and scan the surrounding area for hostiles. And please try to be inconspicuous"
Higgins clambers on top of a nearby bolder and starts to scan the surrounding planes beyond the edge of the grassland. Once he finishes scanning he stands up.
"Sir, I don't understand. All I can see is a small structure but I can't detect..."
Suddenly a plasma rocket flies past exploding behind Higgins, knocking him flying into other members of the team. Master Chief and Alpha team then set up offensive positions along the border of the grassy vegetation. Looking out onto the planes, there was a small patrol of grunts firing from in front of the build, As well as a Banshee flying overhead.
"How the hell didn't you see anything?" Shouted Hays
Another explosion showers the team in dirt and dust. By this time the Banshee has turned about and is heading back towards their positions firing its plasma cannons.
"Stevenson, take out that Banshee. The rest of you lay down cover fire whilst I take out those Grunts" Orders the Master Chief.
The team starts to lay down orderly assault rifle fire in order to draw attention from the Master Chief. Stevenson, with help from Higgins, Loads up his rocket launcher and starts to aim at the Banshee. As the Banshee turns for yet another pass Stevenson locks on, and fires. The rocket streams through the air leaving a trail of smoke and heat haze in its wake, eventually colliding with the Ship, turning it into a ball of flaming metal plummeting into the grassland.
M.C Pulls out his sniper rifle, still partially loaded through the earlier action, and targets the three grunts. He goes into full magnification in order to see their heads clearly and fire one shot at each of them. After listening to a short satisfying silence, the Master Chief puts away the sniper rifle and stands up.
"Ok Men, the coast appears to be clear but be on you guard none the less" warns M.C
M.C leads Alpha team out into the open slowly but surly. All the men were poised and ready to shoot at the first signs of trouble. The group walks over to the small outpost like structure and are ordered to set up a perimeter.
The building was a tall concrete structure very similar in shape to a pillbox but with no form of slits in the walls and a small, waste high, wall outside.
Both The Master Chief and Hays go inside to look around, but there was nothing but a few packs of food, dust and shadows.
"Well there's nothing here of interest" Hays remarks as he kicks a nearby pebble
"Not, quite so. This could be a good fallback position in case of any problems."
"Very well, I'll place a beacon so it can be easily located again. Otherwise we should move on out."
Cornel Hays then proceeded to order the men to move on out. And so the Team headed towards yet another canyon in hope of reaching their destination before nightfall.
Project Egon - Chapter 2
Date: 25 April 2004, 10:10 AM
Chapter 2 - Life After Dark
Several Hours passed and nightfall slowly started to creep in. Alpha team's moral had started to fade along with the remaining energy and stamina that remained. They had walked about 20 miles inland from the Drop Zone but had little or no success in finding the Covenant Base. In fact, the only signs of Covenant forces were several small patrols around the hillsides.
As the team climbed to the top of yet another rocky hillside, they saw the towering buildings of the covenant base. A sigh of relief came over the group as they looked over the impressive structures, but that was only short lived once they realised what was still to come.
The base was comprised of one huge concrete building, which had two large pointed towers, one twice the height of the other that shadowed the rest of the base. In front of this was a large square courtyard, containing several parked Banshees. And finally another rectangular bunker like building to the east of the Main structure
"Ok, you lot. Set up camp for the night. It's getting too dark to make a successful infiltration now." - said the Cornel as he slung his backpack to the ground.
"Cornel, look over there." Said the Master Chief as he pointed to the distant ridge out in front of them.
Higgins picked up the sonic scope and zoomed in on the area, which the Master Chief pointed at. He could see the darkened outline of several figures, and a faint glow from a fire of some sort. He also noticed a large vehicle close by.
"Sir, I think it maybe covenant. I can't be too sure," remarked Hays
"Give me that!" shout the Cornel as he snatched the scope from Higgins
"We all know how poor you powers of observation are Private"
Hays did a quick sweep over the same area and said "That's Bravo team you idiot!"
Suddenly the Cornels communicator buzzed into life.
"Alpha team. Alpha team. This is Bravo team, do you read us over?" buzzed Gulf
"Roger Bravo team, you're coming in loud and clear. Glad you managed to find your way here."
"Roger Alpha team, It was piece of cake. We were starting to wonder what had happened to you"
"Has there been much Covenant activity since you got here?"
"There's been minimal activity over the past few hours."
"Very good Sergeant. Set up camp for the night and maintain radio silence. We're going to attempt an assault in the morning. Over and Out."
"Roger that. Over and out" replied Gulf and then the radio when into the usual static noise.
Later that night the Master Chief was sat next to the campfire, carving out a figure of a human female into a lump of wood he found near by. He paused for a moment to admire his work when Cornel Hays walks up behind him.
"Who's the lady Chief?" kindly asked Hays
"Lady? What lady?" replied M.C as he chucked the wood figure into the fire.
"Don't think I'm stupid. Who was the lady you were carving?"
"Oh. Nobody."
A long pause fell over the campfire.
"So what is it like without Cortana?"
"Well, it's nice to have a bit of privacy for once. But..."
"But?"
"But I do miss her analysing and constant criticisms."
Cornel Hays walked over and sat down on a nearby rock.
"Don't worry, our technicians should have her up and running by the time we complete this mission."
"That may be so. But I can't help but feel responsible for what happened to her in the first place."
"Ah, quit your belly aching. I don't want to hear you wallowing in your own self-pitty! This is a war and mistakes are made. Christ we're only human. Well, you're genetically enhanced but you know what I mean."
The Master Chief nodded, turned back and gazed at the fire again. The Cornel got up and went to check on the other troops, which caused another wave of silence to fall over the camp. The Master Chief suddenly plunged his hand into the fire and pulled out his carving, which had become severely charred. After a short while of admiring and cleaning it up, he moved the rock the Cornel sat on closer and propped the figure up, and went on to cleaning his weapons.
The next morning the teams were bright, energetic and ready for action. The Master Chief was surprised how effective a good sleep had been on the team. But no time was to be wasted. The team stowed away the unnecessary camp equipment and carried only guns, ammunition and any other important equipment available.
The Cornel and the Master chief crept to the edge of the hill and used the sonic scope to scan the current ground movement in the base. There seemed to have been a radical change in Covenant movement since the previous evening. Now the base had a Wrath parked in the central courtyard, three newly arrived ghosts, and all the Banshees had flown of during the night. Also there had been a large increase in infinity movement around the complex.
"Hmm. I'm not too sure about this. There's been too big a change in such a short space of time. Something must have caught their attention." Explained the Master Chief
"I agree, but orders are order. The mission goes ahead. Anyway it's nothing we can't handle." Replied Hays confidently reaching for his communicator.
"Alpha team to Bravo team. Are you all suited up and ready to go?"
"We sure are sir. Let's go fry us some bugs!" responded Gulf
"Very well. Move the Hog and your sniper into a good position, so that you can cover the whole complex. Then wait for my signal."
"Yes sir" said Gulf followed by the buzz of the radio
"Ok everyone. Target mostly the infantry because they will give us the most problems. Stevenson, you take out the Wrath with your launcher and then, if all goes according to plan, we will all regroup at the entrance of the main building." Ordered the Master Chief
"Sir, Yes Sir" responded the group.
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