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Against All Odds Part 4: Storm On the Horizon
Posted By: Torr<corey_waterman@hotmail.com>
Date: 23 October 2005, 8:46 pm
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-Athens Orbital Defense Platform-
-Hours before the Covenant invasion of Earth-
Corporal Harland stood there on the tram that ran through the station and looked out at Earth.
"Beautiful isn't it?" another marine said.
"Yeah." Harland said weakly, the image of Earth suddenly changed before his eyes to a hellish planet, burning and covered in glass. Nothing alive on it's surface. He snapped back to reality. This is why he had to stop the Covenant, Harland thought to himself.
An alarm sounded.
"What the…" one of the marines exclaimed.
"Wow, I thought we would have more time!" Harland said, taken by surprise.
The tram stopped at its destination and Harland the other marines flooded out of it, running in different directions. Harland scooped up an SMG that was on a crate and stuffed a magnum pistol into his belt. He sprinted down the corridors to get to the rooms where the airlocks were and he managed a quick look out one of the large windows. A dozen or so Covenant ships were moving towards the super-MAC defense platforms. The closest platforms, the Cairo and the Malta, were already firing.
He felt the Athens fire, but kept moving. One of the docking bays had Covenant boarding ships attaching to it. An empty pelican sat there. A dozen or so marines scrambled to find cover and get their weapons ready, but the doors opened and Covenant flew out.
He fired, killing a grunt, but a hail of plasma bolts impacted around him and Harland dove for cover. Everywhere, marines were dying.
The charred corpse of a fellow marine collapsed onto the deck beside him. Harland was on the lower level of the bay behind some supply crates. He saw a grunt come around the corner and killed it quickly. The elites roared with excitement and charged his position.
Harland tossed a grenade over his shoulder and sprinted towards one of the corridors leading away from the hangar. He looked back for a second and saw more Covenant exiting the boarding ships.
Plasma bolts flew past his head as he ran, and finally one hit him in the back. Harland tripped and fell behind a small barricade. The elites thought he was dead so turned back to defending their newly conquered docking bay.
Harland replaced his nearly empty SMG magazine with a new one and sat up, looking over the barricade. Luckily, the weak, mobile armor had stopped the shot to his back. All marines wore it, and right now Harland thanked God that it was there.
Several grunts were moving down the hallway towards him to make sure he was dead. He hid quickly and then kneeled and fired his SMG from over the barricade. Two of them died quickly but the third one returned fire and moved for cover behind another barricade. Harland saw an elite moving towards the hall to help the grunt.
In a desperate attempt to escape, Harland tossed a frag grenade into the alien's path and sprinted around the corner. He kept moving and went up a flight of stairs, hoping to lose the elite that was tailing him. Finally, Harland looked back and saw that the elite was gone. Still out of breath, he keyed his comm.
"The Covenant have taken Docking Bay 14, over." Harland announced over the system wide comm. channel for the Athens Platform. There were several nervous laughs and someone told him that all the bays had been taken except for one. There were 25 of them in all.
There were several other marines nearby and they were preparing defenses after seeing Harland's fear stricken form retreating and hearing his report on the comm. channel.
"Damn." Harland muttered as he imagined the thousands of Covenant that would soon be on board. Suddenly an announcement boomed over the speakers in the hallway.
"Defensive Layer of blast doors will close in two minutes."
Harland turned to look back down the hallway he had come from. Several elites were leading a group of grunts towards the marines. Most of the marines were armed with battle rifles so they opened fire on the group of aliens. Grunts were falling left and right, and one of the elites went down, but the Covenant did reach them and a close range battle ensued.
The Covenant drove the marines back and the blast door closed behind the aliens. Harland and two other marines managed to escape into a larger area with glass railings. It was a sort of recreation room. More marines were inside; most of them were moving towards the hallway and met Harland head on.
"Covies on the way! Fall back!" Harland shouted at them. The incoming marines turned around instantly and found cover. A sergeant kneeled down next to Harland and began to speak into his comm.
"We have a breach. Incoming Covenant." The sergeant reported. Several other breaches were reported seconds later.
"Understood, we have tracked your position and are sending reinforcements there now." Someone replied.
"Make it quick." The sergeant said and keyed off his comm.
The firing began. The Covenant struggled to find good positions, but they eventually did and only took a few casualties. They returned fire and the marines did their best to keep them back.
"The Malta just exploded… from the inside!" someone reported.
Once more marines arrived to help fight, the battle got less and less intense. Finally, they pushed the Covenant back towards the door, but by this time, the Covenant had planted a charge. The door blew open and hundreds of grunts poured in, commanded by several elites. Marines were being mowed down and the Covenant were advancing quickly.
Harland caught a plasma bolt in the shoulder and fell to the deck. All around him marines were dying. He slowly got up and noticed almost all of his comrades were dead. Suddenly a strong hand grabbed him and pulled him into and empty corridor.
The sounds of grunts grew louder and Harland dared one look around. He was hiding behind a pillar with several other marines. The Covenant passed by them and moved into the recreation area.
Harland was grabbed again and tossed halfway down the corridor. He watched as several other marines in front of him went up a short flight of stairs so he followed obediently. Finally they came to a ladder that led up onto a narrow platform. Half-dazed, Harland simply followed them up the ladder.
Next he saw a small dark tunnel with only a few dim red emergency lights a couple inches above them. The tunnel forced them to crawl because it was so small. Harland attempted to speak but was ordered to 'shut the hell up'.
Finally they left the tunnel and climbed down another ladder. Harland took a look around. They were in the docking bay he had defended earlier. The secret passage they had taken led them over the blast door and past it, into the Covenant held areas.
Silently, they moved towards a pelican dropship in the far side of the bay. The Covenant boarding ship was still attached but troops were no longer coming out and the cleared bay was only guarded by four grunts, two of which were manning turrets.
"Okay, if you have a BR then give us cover. Take out the grunts on the turrets first. The rest of you follow me. Okay, Wade, check thermals." A sergeant told them.
"Shit…" deep-voiced Wade replied.
"What?" the sergeant asked.
"Two stealthed elites against the far wall. They're just sitting there." Wade reported, peering through his thermal binoculars.
"Damn, stick to the plan, but kill the grunts quick and give us cover. In return we will give you cover. After both groups are on the bottom level, everyone move the pelican quickly. If you dick around you will be left behind." The sergeant said.
Harland took his newly confiscated battle rifle and aimed carefully. With one three-round burst he took out the first grunt on the turret. He didn't have time to shoot the other grunts because they were already dead. He didn't even bother with the ladder, jumping off of the platform and rolling to absorb the shock of the four or five meter drop. The sergeant noticed this and smiled at him.
"Marcella hit that switch to open the bay door! Ok good job! Now move! Move your sorry asses!" the sergeant shouted.
Harland did what he was told and dove into the back of the pelican. He noticed a man with a pilot's helmet ran past him and into the cockpit. He heard firing and moved out of the pelican to take cover behind it.
Marines passed him one by one until finally they were all in. Harland glanced back and saw the charred corpse of the sergeant a few feet away. A wounded marine was trying to crawl into the pelican and the elites were moving towards him. Harland ducked as a plasma bolt flew over his head. The wounded marine begged for help but the back door of the pelican was closing slowly.
"Sorry." Harland muttered and turned away from the marine, now hearing screams and cursing. A plasma bolt hit him the back, and almost forced him to his knees because of the burning pain.
Harland tossed his battle rifle inside and dove into the pelican, the door shutting and sealing only a second later. The pelican took off before Harland could strap in. The seven other marines in the back of the pelican were thrown violently as the dropship veered to the left and then upward.
Harland moved towards the cockpit and threw himself down in the co-pilot chair, strapping in quickly. He barely got a glance from the pilot.
"Wow. We just deserted." Harland said in realization.
"No, what we did was survive. The Covenant planted a bomb in the Malta and several other super-MAC stations that exploded." The pilot said as he jerked the controls to avoid incoming fighters and dodge bursts of plasma. The man was covered in blood and sweat.
Harland keyed the rear camera just in time to see the Covenant boarding ships flying away and the Athens Defense Station exploding.
"The Athens just blew." Harland said in amazement.
"Yeah. Tell the dumbasses in the back to strap in because it won't be fun entering the atmosphere at this speed." The pilot told him.
Harland informed them and looked back to make sure. Each marine had a death grip on the nearest safety handles.
"Brace yourselves." The pilot said over the pelican's comm.
"Damn. There's a seraph on us." Harland told him.
The ship rocked as plasma sprayed its tail, melting the rear of the ship. Suddenly a plasma missile erupted in a blue explosion, almost taking off the rear compartment of the ship.
"Guys, move into the inner compartment just to be safe. Do it quickly." Harland said into the comm.
Suddenly the ship veered out of control and Harland was thrown against the side of the cockpit, his restraints barely holding him in. He tightened them.
"What the hell just happened?" Harland shouted.
"The rear compartment is gone. Fu !!!!!!!" the pilot screamed.
Harland hit the wall and went unconscious.
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