Reconnaisance by BansheeBoy
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Reconnaissance (The Alps) : The first mission
Date: 28 May 2004, 8:04 PM
Reconnaissance (The Alps) : The first mission
1100 hours
19th December 2552
The Alps, Switzerland
On UNSC controlled planet Earth
The frost-covered pelican flew over the wrecked town of Vas'dien. The covenant assault had obviously passed through here, as even from the sky you could see broken vehicles and plasma-scorched buildings. But the damage was the same nearly anywhere you looked on Earth. The UNSC were fighting a losing battle and the situation would become worse if the team inside the pelican didn't accomplish their mission.
The residents of the pelican were a recon team. The best dang recon team in the dam UNSC as Petty Officer Sanchez described them. He was leading this particular mission. About five hours ago Admiral Whitcomb's pelican had been surrounded by banshees and captured by the covenant. According to reports they had been taken to the covenant camp in the alps. It was a mysterious site as nothing had been able to get within five kilometres of the camp, as there was a hell of a lot of resistance. All anyone knew was that the covenant had a base there. The squad consisted of sixteen marines that had seen a hell of a lot of action. Of course a squad of sixteen marines wouldn't be able to do this mission on their own. Waiting for them at the beginning of the valley was two scorpions and four snow-hogs. With that they might just make it.
The small ship broke out of the sun-kissed sky. It flew past the last few wrecked skyscrapers and prepared to land on the thick, crinkly snow.
" The LZ's clear people, just make sure you don't catch a cold" said Shadowaxe the pilot of the pelican.
" Roger that" acknowledged Sanchez and he continued "Go,go,go". The marines stepped out onto the cold hard ground.
Private. Murphy rushed out of the pelican and stared at his surroundings. He was carrying a standard marine rocket launcher. The valley ahead was covered in two-foot of snow and the cliff face was completely covered with a thin layer of ice. But there was something that really stuck out. The small black body of a special-ops grunt. It looked dead but he couldn't be sure. Almost immediately one of his fellow marines shouted "Hey let's check that dead barstard out".
"STOP" yelled Murphy. The private picked up a stick and threw it at the grunt. A explosion sounded as the grunt flew five-feet into the air. A trap.
" Sir they know were coming" Murphy said over his radio to Sanchez.
" That won't stop us priva.......what's that?" Sanchez asked. A soft droning sounded.
" Up there!" bellowed another of Murphy's fellow marines. A banshee had appeared over the cliff edge. The banshee flew in painting a smoke picture with it's trails and fired giant purple plasma blasts at the band of marines. Murphy steadied his rocket launcher and followed the speedy barstard. The purple blur finally came within his sights and the private fired the large projectile. The banshee was caught in a blazing whirlwind of flame and was sent smoking and twirling towards the cliffs.
" Top aiming Murphy, now let's get to those vehicles" Sanchez announced over the marines frequency.
The team sprinted through the valley and met little resistance apart from a few grunts and jackals.
" The vehicles are hidden in a cave up ahead. As long as the covenant haven't found them we may be able to rescue the admiral" yelled Sanchez.
Private James Miller looked through his binoculars and stared at the valley from his vantage point. He spotted the cave. Unfortunately he saw something else. The covenant were guarding the wide and low entrance with a pair of hunters and two grunts on shades. Not to much to take care of, but the hunters could be a cause for concern.
" Sir, the cave is being guarded by a few covenant. A quick snipe attack should be suitable for this situation" said Miller.
" Alright Miller, make it happen. All snipers aim at the cave" commanded petty officer Sanchez. Miller steadied his rifle and looked down at the pieces of shit.
" Alright guys, I've got the grunts you get the big-boys" exclaimed Miller. He received several replies of 'roger'. Miller fired two quick heavy shots. The two grunts fell from the seats of the shades. He changed his target to the hunters to find they were all ready dead. His snipers were amazing. The best snipers in the UNSC for the best recon team in the UNSC.
" Hostiles eliminated sir" said Miller happily.
" Good. Marines move forward to the cave" Sanchez told his troops. They made a quick sprint across the frost-covered terrain. They entered the small cave and saw the vehicles they hadn't worked that hard to find. It was about to get a lot tougher though.
You're probably wondering how those vehicles got there. The previous recon team had used them to get to where the vehicles were hidden. From their last transmissions it seemed like they were being surrounded by the covenant and had said they would hide the vehicles. They had made their last stand inside the cave. So the new recon team was about to enter uncharted territory. Uncharted covenant territory. It was risky but Sanchez thought his reconnaissance team would make it. They hadn't had a single casualty yet. So far the marines were going to get an A+.
The marines manned the vehicles. Two men to a scorpion and three men to a snow-hog. The snow-hogs were armed with a LAAG gun and a rocketeer. The scorpion also was armed with a large projectile rocket launcher. The escort rolled out of the cave and into the swirling blizzards of the alps.
" Sir, are you sure we should continue? I have a bad feeling about this narrow valley. If the covenant place some wraiths on top of the cliffs up there we're doomed" moaned Murphy.
" Quit your belly-aching soldier, we have no choice. Move out" Yelled Sanchez. The vehicles moved into the narrow valley and everything went dark as the shadows of the cliffs consumed the entire escort.
" I can hear something sir" said Pvt. Roberts. The marines listened and heard it too. It sounded like a banshee but bigger. It got louder and louder and finally a phantom burst round the corner.
" Fuck, a phantom. Scorpions, fire!" bellowed Sanchez. The scorpions launched two projectiles towards the oncoming behemoth. They obviously hit something crucial as the phantom fell smoking towards the foot of the valley.
"Accelerate!" yelled Sanchez. The escort sped up but the rear 'hog got hit. The hog was consumed by the vibrant-coloured falling wreckage and was crushed along with three unlucky marines. Another sound was heard and a marine shouted "Ghosts!".
" 'Hogs, full speed!" shouted Sanchez. The snow-hogs increased their speed, as the scorpions followed slowly behind, and the 'hogs quickly found the ghosts. The combined power of the LAAG's tore the ghosts into shreds. Finally the marines saw the exit from the narrow valley into a wide open space. The vehicles broke free from the narrow valley into hell.
The clearing sloped quite violently up and unfortunately the marines were at the bottom. At the top the covenant had placed four shades, twelve jackals and two wraiths.
" Snipers, take care of those shades and jackals. Scorpions take care of the wraiths. Snow-hogs, just climb the hill" commanded Sanchez. The snipers dismounted their 'hogs and fired up at the covenant blockade. The shades were the first to go as they posed the immediate threat. The snipers had a bit of trouble taking care of the jackals as they protected themselves with their shields. The bitch's fired charged plasma shots down at the snipers and two of the marines fell.
" Get back on the Snow-hogs dammit. They're gonna kill us!" Miller bellowed.
The remaining snipers jumped back on their 'hogs and the escort continued up the slope. The LAAG's continuously fired at the jackals and one after one the bullets impacted on the covenant assholes. Finally the jackals fell and all that was left was the wraiths. One was blown to pieces by a scorpion projectile. The second was about to be destroyed when an elite jumped out of the wraith with his hands up.
"Yved misuppi malana hipe!" growled the elite which the petty officer assumed meant 'I surrender'.
" Can you tell us anything about your base?" asked Sanchez.
" Mili Sinine?" asked the elite. The covenant bum obviously didn't have a clue what Sanchez was saying so the petty officer said " you're no use to us" and shot him with his customised pistol.
" Someone man that wraith and follow the escort" Sanchez told his marines.
The marines continued through the following valleys meeting little other resistance apart from a pair of hunters which were crushed by the snow-hogs. Finally they came to a cliff overlooking a vibrant coloured camp and a purple communications tower. They had found the covenant base.
" Shadowaxe, were going to need some reinforcements, I don't care who just anyone who can fire a weapon" said Sanchez.
" Roger that, I'm inbound" replied Shadowaxe. The pelican came up silently behind them and unloaded their delivery. Six combat ready marines. Sanchez's plan was to use them for manning the vehicles weapons. Three for the snow-hog's LAAGs, two for the scorpion's rocket launchers and one for the wraith's large plasma blast. Also the two remaining recon team snipers would cover them. That left nine god-dammed recon marines to go down and rescue the admiral. There was only one way down to the camp and that was by climbing down the rock face. As long as they weren't spotted why climbing down then they would be alright. They began the long climb down.
The sharp rocks scraped Pvt. Murphy's chest and he began to bleed. He ignored the pain and continued the climb down. To make matters worse he was afraid of heights. He stumbled down a bit further making sure he just simply stared at the rock face and didn't look down. Suddenly while trying to make his way even further down he felt his foot slip as he struggled to find something to stand on. The rubble fell to the foot of the cliff and created a loud echo. ' You fucking idiot ' he thought to himself. The sound was enough to get the attention of a nearby shade manned by a grunt. Round after round of heavy plasma fire hit the cliff. All of a sudden everything came to life. All of the covenant noticed the firing shade and came to aid it. The humans also noticed the sudden open of fire. Rocket projectiles, LAAG bullets, sniper bullets and also large plasma bombs fired from atop the cliff face. Suddenly a giant battle had begun.
The marines made it to the bottom of the cliff, hardly noticed by the covenant as they were a little pre-occupied by the escort. The recon team sneaked past the covenant army and entered the camp. Inside was a path leading down underneath the clod snow.
" Amazing...How'd they build this so fast?" Asked Murphy.
" Hell, it doesn't matter, let's just find the admiral" said Sanchez. The marines continued down the metal-plated tunnel. They could hear the echoes of the battle overhead but couldn't tell by ear who was winning. They came to a t-junction and decided to turn right and on to a small covenant style door. They entered a large temple like room. Inside awaited four brutes. The following battle was a complete disaster. One of the brutes ran at the petty officer. Sanchez dodged the oncoming assault and fired into the back of the furry walking-tank. But it was a little late. The brute had mauled one of the marines to death before it had died. And there were still three more.
Pvt. Murphy dodged the heavy but slow blows of two brutes and slapped the butt of his rifle against their faces. He dropped a frag grenade at the feet of the still-dazed apes and dived back yelling " Fire in the hole!". The brutes were consumed in a curtain of flame and fell to the floor.
Pvt. Roberts managed to step back just in time but the other two were too late. The clawed paw of the final brute hit the faces of two more marines. Roberts steadied his battle rifle and aimed at the primate's face. He unloaded a full clip and the brute fell to the metal floor. Three marines had fallen for four brutes. Some would say that's alright, but Sanchez didn't like to lose a single man.
They walked through the next door to find a detention area.
" It's a trap!" someone bellowed. Sanchez recognised the voice of the admiral. But he said there was a trap. Sanchez saw that the air in front of him was slightly, well...fuzzy. He used the butt of his rifle and an elite appeared from nowhere and fell to the floor.
"Camo elites" yelled Sanchez. They quickly hunted the rest of them down at the cost of two more marines. All that were left now was Sanchez, Murphy,Roberts and another marine. Sanchez ran to the admiral's cell.
" How do you open these cells sir?" asked Sanchez.
" The CPU for the cells is over the other side of the structure, I think" the admiral replied.
" Alright we'll be back in a minute sir" said Sanchez. The remaining marine guarded the cells while Sanchez, Murphy and Roberts went to search for the controls.
The marines came back to the place where they had turned right and this time turned left. They went through a automatic door, to find there was just one large room with two electrical columns and the controls. Sanchez ran and played with the controls. A minute later he was done.
" Alright lets get back to the admiral" exclaimed the petty officer. They were about to leave when two hunters came out of the shadows. What happened next was very fortunate for the marines. One hunter began running at Sanchez while the other charged a plasma beam and aimed at Murphy. The private jumped behind one of the columns and the hunter fired. The plasma shot hit the column and the debris fell on the charging hunter. Out of nothing the marines had defeated one enemy. But one hunter could still be well enough to kill the trio of marines.
The blue Adonis ran at the Roberts. Fear came over the private and he froze. He was about to be cut in two when Murphy dived across and saved him at a price for both of them. The hunter's claws had dug deep into Murphy's chest as he had saved Roberts and now he was losing a possibly fatal amount of blood. Roberts had fallen to the floor awkwardly and his arm was twisted in a odd way. They both lay huddled on the floor in pain. Satisfied that two of the marines were dealt with for the moment the hunter charged at t Sanchez. Sanchez backed into the corner firing clip after clip at the oncoming beast but the hunter blocked the barrage of bullets with his thick metal shield. Convinced that he was about to die Sanchez dropped his weapon and took out the picture of his wife, still backing away. He looked down at the glossy photo to see a beautiful face smiling back at him. He prayed with all his heart that he would see her again but those chances were decreasing by the second. Sanchez felt his back hit the wall and realised there was nowhere to run. The hunter lifted his arm and was about to bring it down on the petty officer's head when he was stabbed in the back with a standard marine combat knife. Orange blood oozed out of his back and the monster finally fell to the ground nearly crushing Sanchez. Pvt. Murphy stood there clutching his chest. It appeared he had managed to stop the bleeding with some biofoam from his pack, standard marine equipment. Murphy handed Sanchez back his battle rifle.
" Thanks private, said Sanchez gratefully, now let's get the admiral and get the hell out of here!"
" Good job marines, said the admiral upon their return, they were using this place as a POW camp. They captured me, General Mason and Commander Perry. We were labelled as high priority and the prophets were apparently coming to interrogate us. Thank god you came when you did".
" We did what we could admiral, but we need to get out now" Sanchez announced. They backtracked their path and approached the exit.
" Careful, we might be met by a entire army of covenant out there if the escort lost" said Sanchez. They held their breath and exited the base. The five surviving marines of the battle greeted them and among them was Pvt. Miller.
" Good Job sir" exclaimed Miller.
" Thanks" replied sanchez.
" Shadowaxe, we need extraction now!" commanded Sanchez over his radio.
" Roger, Shadowaxe inbound" Shadowaxe announced.
The pelican appeared on the horizon and sped in. It landed on the frosty snow and the marines boarded. The pelican took off almost immediately and burst into the clouds overhead.
" So Admiral, what did you think of the UNSC's best recon team?" questioned Sanchez.
" I'm impressed. Very impressed" said Admiral Whitcomb.
The reconnaissance team shall return! Peace Out!
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