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The Story of a marine; Chapter 3
Posted By: Ugly Wimp<uglywimp@gmail.com>
Date: 11 June 2007, 11:02 pm
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Chapter 3
1035 Hours April, 20 2552 (Military Calendar/Estimate)
Location: Unknown, somewhere in slipspace on randomized vector
Andrew had come out of the shock that had followed the battle. It was not the serious form of shock; he was merely silent and kept to himself. It took a good nights sleep to bring him back to normal. He walked over to one of the table where Beavers and McKinney were sitting. "I suppose I should be able joke about this now?" he asked.
"Just wait a little while," Beavers advised.
"I wouldn't calling 'joking' myself," McKinney put in. "Its more, speaking about with a lighter tone. Regardless, it will make you feel a little bit better about everything." The Sarge sighed, and they all remembered how there had been two billion residents of Lars Grannus II.
Eventually, they came out of slipspace over Sigma Octanus IV. The refugees were to be settled there, and the Marines would be posted with the local garrison.
Andrew's first thought was the place was huge. He, along with McKinney and Beavers, was stationed in the area around the HQ and hospital complex. Further on, there was another base from a different battalion, and several other companies were stationed around the planet. As Beavers said, "ONI must be expecting an attack, over wise they wouldn't put us on a planet already fairly well defended."
It did make Andrew rather uneasy, but it would be easier now that he had some experience with the Covenant. In other wars, it seemed the new recruits always died first. This war though, everyone was just as likely to die as anyone else. It was fair, but Andrew would rather have a higher chance of survival now that he was a veteran.
Soon, July came. It was hot on Sigma Octanus. The base had been carved out of the jungle, so it was often brutally hot. July 17 was no different. Andrew was off duty, lying in his cot, holding his data pad, and composing a message to home when the alarm sounded. "Attention all personnel, report to your briefing rooms and prepare for combat. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill." Andrew flew up, and ran to armory. He dawned his armor, and load up on ammo and grenades, than ran to his companies briefing room.
"Four Covenant ships came out of slipspace not long ago, and the brilliant tactics of Captain Keyes destroyed three of the ships," said the company commander brusquely. Then a diagram appeared, showing the "Keyes Loop." Unfortunately," he continued, the remaining ship was a carrier, and it has deployed a lot of drop ships. We are assigned to defend Head Quarters, and are to take up positions in bunkers 3-14."
They moved out. The headquarters defense was based on two lines of bunkers, which roughly formed around a right-angle. On the other sides, there were steep mountains where it would be impossible to land any sizable force. In front of the bunkers was a large field, ideal for landing troops. Beyond that was a large valley, heavily forested. Further on was the primary marine base, the first line of defense. Andrew arrived in bunker, loaded up with ammo, his AR, pistol and frag grenades.
The bunkers were two stories of concrete reinforced with titanium A. Several wraith shots couldn't penetrate, so Andrew felt secure. The lower level was 10 feet square, and the upper level was 5 feet square. Andrew peered through the firing slit, but couldn't see anything. They waited in tense silence for half an hour. Then, a fleet of specks appeared on the horizon. They soon proved to be the Covenant U-shaped drop ships, and there were a lot of them. Missiles fired, and blasted some to smoldering cinders, but more broke through and released groups grunts, who soon charged in a mad dash toward them.
"All standard personnel, hold fire; snipers, machine gunners and tanks: fire!" Bullets and shells exploded forward, sending many grunts tumbling, but still they charged, firing though they were out of range. Their numbers dwindled as they drew closer, but they then came in range. Very few plasma bolts actually made it through the slit, and most were misses, but one shot did hit Ray Beavers in the face, and he fell dead. No had time to even look. "All standard personnel: fire!"
Soon, the Covenant forces pulled back to the first line of bunkers, many mere charged piles of rubble and waited. Nothing moved. Then, a series of loud explosions rocked the surroundings. "They glassed the barracks Command office!" said another marine. Then, the grunts returned.
Hundreds of Assault Rifles fired, ammo counters dwindled and spent casings and empty clips hit the floors of the bunkers. Wave after of grunts charged, and slowly, more and more soldiers fell. Andrew kept firing. As wraith blasts came down on Warthogs, flipping them and turning them in smoldering hulks. As Seraph fighters bombed Scorpions, and were sometimes shot down by Longsword interceptors. As jump jets and Short Swords pounded the Covenant and as the grunts kept coming, and coming, and coming, he held down the trigger, removed spent clips and dodged plasma fire.
He was out of AR ammo shortly after McKinney went down, and picked up his ammo and began firing again. He threw one of his four grenades, and the bodies of grunts, some of whom were already dead, others who had just died, went flying. It had been 70 minutes before the last Scorpion and was destroyed, and survivors were ordered to retreat to the second line of bunkers. These bunkers were one story, and not nearly as sturdy. To get to them, Andrew ran across 50 yards of unbroken ground. Many men fell beside him. Once he was able to grab a clip off a dead body, adding it to the other two he had.
He dived into the bunker, threw a grenade and began firing. The three clips were used up in the space of minutes, since Andrew had to fire full auto. He threw another grenade, and pulled out his pistol, and began unloading rounds into the grunts.
Andrew knew he had to retreat when the other man died, and grunts began crawling over the bunker. He took his last grenade, and threw it at the entrance, and took cover. After it exploded, he charged out, fired his last two pistol rounds, picked up a plasma pistol and a plasma grenade, and retreated to the trench in front of a wrecked building. He found thirty survivors there. He dived in as green plasma bolts flew over his head. He peaked up, firing the plasma pistol.
It was depleted in ten minutes, so he picked up one of the many lying in front of the trench. In five minutes, Covenant stopped coming. Then, a red elite charged over the hill. Andrew held down the trigger, ready to fire when he noticed the pistol had built up a ball of energy. Bullets pinged of the elite's shields, and it jumped into the trench, smashing a marine with its plasma rifle.
The elite was right in front of Andrew, standing eight feet tall it roared at him. Time slowed. The elite raised its rifle and Andrew fired. The bolt of plasma corrected itself, and flew into the chest of the elite. Its shields failed, and it appeared stunned. Andrew pushed the overheated plasma pistol into one of the unarmored areas on the elites. The heat melted through, and jammed the top open. The elite staggered, struggling to raise its weapon. Andrew removed the plasma pistol, and fired at the elites head. The alien gurgled and fell.
The grunts, at seeing their leader die. Turned and fled, getting shot as they ran. Drop ships picked them up, and all was quiet. Andrew looked around. There were only 14 marines left, and many were wounded. There was no cheering, the men collected ammo and moved up to one of the few surviving bunkers.
"Hey, the munitions bunker, it hasn't been hit!" a marine shouted. They all looked, and sure enough the bunker was still standing, but a fire was spreading toward it.
"We'll need that ammo. I'll go get a fire fighting suit and get it. I need four others," four men left, but Andrew leaned against the bunker and sighed. He could not have cried. There was too much adrenaline in him and, he knew that if he started crying, he could not stop. So many had died that day. Some that he didn't know, some that he did. But on the inside, a part of cried. A part that was pushed back and left alone.
Eventually, a warthog pulled up, with four marines, one wounded. The survivors of the base were informed that the nearby base was destroyed, but they were able to get SATCOM, and they said the marines would get help.
When the single Pelican arrived, Andrew knew that there was no way they would be able to stop the Covenant with one Pelican of marines. But there were no marines in the Pelican, there were Spartans.
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