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Vein of silence by MadSpartan
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Veins of silence
Date: 15 March 2005, 8:58 PM
PROLOG
Kaz ulkamee looked onto the view screen in the drop ship; it showed a flowing landscape of hills trees and great waterfalls. The screen made him sick, it looked to much like a human landscape to him, he spat into his voice command,
"We have to go down there soldiers, I don't like it, and I expect that none of you like it either, but what the prophets command is what we do,"
As the side doors of the drop ship opened ten elites hopped out, forming into formations zeta and heta, 5 each. Kaz ulkamee watched as they spread out into the forest, there black armor blending into the shadows of the trees. He sat, wishing he had something to eat, he was parched, and he had no idea why they had sent him to this remote planet, if you could call it that, it was more of a... floating ring in space.
Suddenly, Kaz ulkamee heard shouts coming for the forest, at first, they sounded like surprise, like one of his squads had found something, then they turned into ululating cries of anguish and pain. He turned back into the drop ship, cursing the day he was promoted to Special Forces. He grabbed his new upgraded plasma rifle; it now had a longer battery life and built in coolant so it didn't overheat. He turned to face what would be coming out of the woods, but nothing in his training had prepared him for what he saw.
A great mass of what looked to be walking corpses were slowly coming towards him, and around there feet came a tide of what looked like fleshy balls. He turned, he didn't know his enemies, was alone, and had limited resources, he knew he couldn't win.
As he jumped into the seat of the cockpit, he turned on the view screen only to see a flood of the creatures around him; he lifted off, hoping that his companions had come to a quick end.
The docking grunt looked at the drop ship coming in and took a deep breath of methane from his tanks; this one would be a piece of work for the engineers. It had huge dents in its sides, and had a strange green slime covering parts.
As it landed and was locked into place, the side doors opened, and a flood of strange beasts came poring out. The grunts at the opening station were killed almost instantly, spraying Florissant blue blood on the walls.
Chapter 1
On the doorstep of destruction
The covenant ship had been floating in space, not a single shot had been fired, there guns were cold. They had never seen the like, but they of course had to investigate, this could be a break through, a complete covenant ship for free.
Lieutenant Haverson and his squad moved in, they had never seen anything like this, the whole ship was abandoned. He had come with the battle ship Flag of Peril, and he had seen quite a few battles. He had a grizzled face, heavy with scars, but in all his years in the military he never seemed to get promoted very much, maybe it was because of his unorthodox battle methods, maybe because of his list of disobeyed orders from superiors, he didn't know, all he knew was he was alive, and everyone in his squad stayed alive, and that was all he needed.
"Lieutenant, we found the bridge, its empty, not a single covenant force, they are all gone, no bodies, but plenty of blood. It looks as if it was there final stand and there stand did go that well," A marine had just come out of one of the side passages on the ship.
"Good work soldier, we need to investigate the engine room, that is what we need secure, if that is the only the take from this ship it should be the engines,"
"Sir Yes sir" the marine snapped back. Liutenant haverson never used the names of his marines, you never know what kind of information the enemy could get from names.
As he walked toward the bridge, as the Lieutenant walked he looked down side passages, wondering what had befallen this ship, completely abandoned, floating in space, not a single body to be found but every sign that a great battle had taken place here, and that the covenant had lost.
Thoughts flashed in his head, could it have been another UNSC ship, but then it would have been reported in his by his command, or maybe some of the covenant revolted, those grunts, they looked to be like the lowest slave ranks, they could have... his thoughts were cut short as a radio transmission came through his helmet comm. unit.
"Any body who is out there, I need help, I am trapped in the bridge, ther...there something out there, outside of the bridge," That doesn't bode well; I seem to be out side the bridge, Haverson though." Oh my God! what is that thin, its huge, it...it Oh my God it's some type of new covenant, We've never seen this before, help me, Oh My God I'm gonna die!" With that the comm. unit filled with screams and Haverson clicked it off.
"Shit," he muttered, that was one of his marines he had just lost, and a hell of a good one too.
Suddenly, out of the shadows, a great lumbering beast came, it charged at him without even a second thought about the gun at its side, quickly he pulled up his assault rifle and opened fire, the muzzle flares light illuminating the purple walls in an eerie manner. He watched as the bullets ripped into the beast, and green flesh was ripped off its body, but it didn't stop. He kept shooting, and watched his bullet counter got down, 40...35...25...10... ...0. He whipped out his pistol, aiming for a head shot, Haverson knew that this would be his final shot before the thing got to him, and just before it did, he squeezed of a shot.
Privet Sanders looked slowly around the corner, checking for any enemies that could be there, he had just heard a radio transmission from the bridge, and he was scared. He had only been in the Core for about two months before he was called out for duty, and he hadn't even see a covenant yet except on screen.
Slowly he stalked down the corridor, he might be afraid, but he could leave that marine on the bridge alone. He saw in the distance the entrance to the bridge, and in front of it the ground was covered in green blood. Strange, he thought, the only part of his training for him to remember was the covenant blood wasn't green, so what could it be.
As he got to the bridge, something slammed into his side. He twisted ready to see his first real covenant, and hopefully his first kill. But just before he shot he saw what had attacked him, a side panel of the wall.
"Stupid faulty ship, stupid covenant, stupid ma..." his muttering was cut short as a slimy hand reached out and grabbed him from behind.
Privet Sarsi walked down through the covenant ship like he owned the place, every now and then spitting on little bits of the covenant technology just to spite them. Sarsi had always been a cocky person, even when he was little he acted as if he was one the one who owned his house on earth, the true one real earth. He always though of himself above other because of the fact that he was born on earth, even though his family was supposed to leave, but by a fluke in the system were allowed to stay.
He was one of Haverson's men, he had always, no matter how cocky he got, had obeyed Haverson. He gave all the other marines in his squad lots of lip, especially Sanders, but never said a word to the Lieutenant.
He had just heard over the comm. channel another of his squad, and he had not liked what he had heard. But as always he was still cocky, even more so when he was afraid, and he was scared *&#*less now.
He turned a corner and saw what he thought looked like bullet holes in the wall, lots of them too, but ignored them and continued towards the bridge, seeing that is was about twenty yards away. He looked down and checked that is shotgun was in order, and that his grenades were easy access for a quick hand. As he got closer to the bridge he had a feeling of foreboding, he felt as if he was being watched by someone, or something. Just as he was about five yards from the bridge, he heard a terrible squelching noise, as of something that was dead trying to speak, and he right them he regretted watching all those old zombie movies when he was a kid.
He slowly advanced towards the bridge, but in the seconds before he turned the corner hands reached down from a vent in the ceiling and grabbed him, pulling him up. He struggled and tried to reach his shotgun, the way he was being held he couldn't reach it, and he was dragged into the vent.
Brian heard a crash from the kitchen that sounded like glass breaking. He jumped up,
"Is everyone okay in there?" he shouted, starting towards the kitchen, as he got to the hall he saw something in his kitchen, a great hulking shape that looked like a man, but was almost eight feet tall and completely blue from head to toe. O god, he thought, the covenant have come to glass the planet, o god, o god were all going to die.
Brian pulled himself up and turned to run; he ran to one of his closets and hid. As he entered he looked down and saw something, a picture of him, and his wife and their two year old daughter. Then it hit him, they are in the kitchen. He burst out of the closet and turned the corner just in time to see his wife and daughter executed by the great hulking shape, and around him were a cluster of smaller being with one huge spike on each of their backs. He stood there in the doorway, dumbfounded, he had just seen his wife and daughter being executed, he had failed to protect them. He stood there, even when the great blue beast turned and pointed towards him, he just stood there. One of the smaller ones started jumping up and down excitedly and shot once at him. The green bolt sizzled into his arm. He looked down to see that his hand was completely gone, all that was left was a stump, but he still stood there, starring at the dead bodies of his wife and daughter.
There was a huge explosion and that knocked him out and that was all he could remember.
Privet Brian snapped out of his thoughts, the massacre at Sigma Octanious Four had happened years ago, and his life had changed since then, he had vowed that he would kill every covenant that he saw until he was dead, or they were all dead. They had stolen his family, and he would steal as many of there lives as he could, he kept a count of every single one he had ever killed, 55 grunts, 34 jackals, 20 elites, and 3 hunters, and he would continue his killing until he was dead, or until they were dead.
He had just heard a radio transmission about twenty minutes before, and he was heading towards the bridge in hopes that he could add a new category to his list of killing. He had no feeling for the marine that had just died, he had no feeling at all except for the brooding fire that he had failed his family, he had run, he had not helped them.
As he got closer and closer to the bridge, he tightened his grip on his gun, his bionic hand working like a normal hand, but stronger, strong enough to punt through a grunts whole body. He turned the corner and looked at the entrance of the bridge, he saw that the doors were open, rent from there holdings in the wall and thrown asunder on the ground. He slowly crept towards the bridge, looking about to see all places that an enemy could come out of. He saw a shadowed corner in off to the side and stayed away from that, he saw a vent in the ceiling and stayed close to the brightly light purple wall. When he finally got to the bridge he turned the corner to see hundreds of strange creatures. They were all a light greenish and all different sizes. He saw them, and saw that they used plasma weapons and opened fire.
As the bullets from his assault rife ripped into the back of one, it turned slowing, seeming to take to notice of the bullets ripping at its flesh. It made a huge leap into the air and landed in front of him. He pulled his bionic hand of his gun and punched into it as hard as he could. Its flesh was spongy and he went right through, and as he pulled back he felt something like a balloon inside and squeezed that. It popped and the creature fell to the ground.
He immediately aimed for the chest, where the balloon thing had been located and he started shooting, he dropped two with constant fire to the chest, but he knew that he couldn't take 100 of them. He pulled of his grenade belt and pulled all the pins, then he lobbed it into the center of the beasts and dove for cover.
He watched a hail of shrapnel and body parts come flying out of the door way. Then can more of the things. He held down the trigger on his gun but it took almost 15 bullets to kill one of them, for everyone he killed two more came to take it place, it seemed there was an endless supply, and then he made the mistake of walking under the vent he had seen earlier. He looked up just in time to see hands reaching down for him, he turned upward to shoot but his gun was knocked aside by a hit from a plasma rifle. He watched his chances melt with the gun as he was pulled up into the vent.
Lieutenant Haverson watched as Brian was pulled into the vent by Sanders and Sarsi, he smiled to himself, so they had all made in except for Greg, the poor B($&erd had died on the bridge with all those things. He remembered the one he had killed, a perfect shot, he had blown its head right off and it didn't even flinch so the only thing he could do was grenade it, and that he had done, thrown the grenade as hard as he could straight at it, and it had gone right into its flesh, and blew it to pieces.
"Brian!" he shouted, everyone got silent, he never used names, ever, they snapped to immediate attention, "stop struggling, its us, we have to get out of here," as he said that a huge arm with whip like tentacles on it reached into the vent and dragged a rotting broken body in after it, "Die you Mother..." the last words of Sarsi were drowned in his shotgun fire, blowing the thing to pieces, "we've got to keep going," shout Haverson, move marines, these things are tough, and we can't afford another casualty," at that moment his comm. channel filled with yelling, he made out phases like "Were gonna die," and "we can't stop them," In a little those stopped and one was left, "Calling all marines, come back to the ship, we are under full attack, there's to many of them, all squads back to the ship, this is your captain speaking, COME BACK NOW!" and then it shut off.
"Marines, back to the ship, ASAP!" shout Haverson, "Aye Capin," Shouted Sarsi over his constant shotgun fire into the hole in the vent,"
"Move now, Sarsi cover the rear, I'll take the front, Brian and Sanders in the middle, give all your grenades to them, DO NOT use them Sparingly!"
With that they set off through the twisting maze of vents.
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