Freddie's War: Chapter Eight
Posted By: Jason Nash<rjnash@optusnet.com.au>
Date: 6 August 2005, 6:53 am
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John went over to the rocks where the skeletons were and with a small knife, he smeared some of the mucus-like substance onto a piece of scientific glass and put it into a small zip bag. He then strolled back to camp with the sample and went into the research tent at the camp. The research tent was one of the only tents left standing after the battle a day or so before.
He walked over to a piece of complicated machinery in one of the tents and placed the sample in a freezer next to it. As he opened the freezer, cool white steam billowed out and revealed an empty shelf inside the freezer. He placed it on the shelf and closed the freezer.
John was an easygoing person and a close friend of Freddie. John was only starting in his military career and was only considered a small fish in the big pond. But that was about to change soon…
Bob Harris looked out the window of the shuttle. He could see the desolate shape of PT-569 up ahead, growing bigger as they came closer.
Ramon checked his pistol once again and then put it back into his waist holster. He seemed addicted with checking the weapon every five minutes, but then again, he did come from a tough background.
Bob had read Ramon's file and had learnt that his parents were killed in an accident involving a can of dog food and a badly thrown grenade. He had then gone to a life of crime, being a petty thief. But when he was caught, somebody had recruited him into the military to help with the Human/Covenant war. He was given an education and after a few battles went on to study a course on researching extra-terristrial life-forms.
Now Bob was beginning to have suspicions about him. The way he acted, and the fact he was bringing a weapon along for the ride.
Bob's thoughts were broken by the sound of the pilot's voice over the intercom:
"Fifteen minutes till landing. Please make sure all seat-belts are on and fastened properly."
Bob checked his seat-belt. It was clicked in.
The shuttle picked up speed and began to speed towards the planet, the heat of its atmosphere against the shuttle made the interior of the shuttle glow an orange tinted red color. The climate control immediately kicked in at the increase of temperature and released a cool jet of air from a grating in the ceiling of the shuttle. The team was checking their equipment, until a sudden lurch of the shuttle sent the crate that Ramon was looking after sliding across the floor and slamming into the wall, spilling out its contents of First Aid Kits and complicated devices.
"What was that?" The pilot asked through the intercom.
"The crate. It wasn't strapped down," Ramon answered, undoing his seat-belt and standing up.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Sit down!" Bob said.
Ramon gathered up the equipment into the crate and strapped it to the floor and then sat back down.
The shuttle's landing rockets came on, just as the hull of the shuttle was peppered with Plasma fire from a Shade turret on top of a ridge in the valley.
"Crap! We're under fire!" The pilot shouted.
The ship zoomed over the valley, Plasma blasts leaving colorful marks on its hull. One blast hit one of the shuttle's rockets. The rocket stopped working and sent the shuttle in a wild spin.
"We've lost engine No. 3!" The pilot shouted.
Henry McGillian, one of the team's members, started muttering a prayer.
The shuttle was hit by another blast, this one smashing the cockpit's window and creating a mess of the pilot.
"Pilot, land us by the camp!" Bob said. There was no answer. Instead, blood was seeping out from under the door into the cockpit.
"Ah…" Sir Hughes began, before the shuttle crashed into a tent at Freddie's camp, sending two beds and a shelf along with four tent posts flying all over the place.
Bob seatbelt snapped and he went sprawling across the floor before hitting his head on the wall. Everything, for him, went black.
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
The scream echoed across the camp. John, who was having a drink of water, heard the scream and went running to where it had come from. It had come from the research tent.
John ran into the tent and found Freddie already there, looking down at the body of a marine. The freezer was wide open.
Freddie heard John come in and turned around to face him.
"I saw it happen," Freddie said, obviously shocked. "There was a banging sound coming from inside the freezer, so Tony here opened it. The sample of slime you collected had oozed out of its bag and jumped out at his face. It suffocated him."
John looked down at the body. The hardened form of the slime was covering the marine's face, blocking all breathing areas. Something bad was going on, and he was determined to find out what. And then after that, the team's shuttle crashed.
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