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The story of a marine Chapter 7
Posted By: Ugly Wimp<uglywimp@gmail.com>
Date: 23 December 2007, 8:59 pm
Read/Post Comments
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Chapter 7
0726 hours, September 19, 2552 (Military
Calendar)/ Halo Ring surface
Andrew Waldron steeled himself for the fight ahead. The marines backed down into the thick, thorny brush, as the whine of the spirit's engines got louder and louder. The drop ship had seen them, because it set down right where they had been standing. The clutch of grunts and the elite in command of them disembarked. They did not see the marines lurking in the shadows underneath the thorn bushes. The elite warbled something to a red armored grunt, who wearily led his orange clad comrades toward the bushes. They would not have had to crotch to get under the bushes if their methane tanks had not been so cumbersome. The grunts crawled forward, toward the marines. As soon as the alien got a little closer and the marines would open up.
But then, a nervous crewman fired first. The shot missed, and the grunts jumped back. "Fire!" shouted Sergeant O'Shea. Two grunts were killed, but the element of surprise had been lost, and now the covenant soldiers were content to fire into the bushes where ever they saw muzzle flashes.
Plasma burned the bushes, and Waldron was concerned they'd start a fire. To prevent this, he tried to take down the Covenant as quickly as possible. It wasn't long before the elite staggered back under a hail of bullets, lowering its shield and allowing it to be finished off. A marine crawled out, but quickly dived back under the bushes again, as the fire from the turret underneath the shadow dropship reigned down toward him.
"This pelican Charlie 217, I have sighted a Covenant dropship hovering over your position, over."
"We are aware of it, could you take it out?" O'Shea growled back into the radio.
"Negative," the pilot said, "we don't have as many rockets as we would like."
"Look damn it," O'Shea, having lost all patience, shouted, "it's not gonna leave. Just take it out!"
"I'll try to wound it so we can move in," the pilot responded. There was a whoosh and a rocket struck the side of the Shadow. The dropship shuddered and flew off, leaking plasma that turned the soil to glass. The pelican hovered over their position, and the tired marines and crewman climbed in.
"I knew you can spare one missile," O'Shea said with a grimace. "Let's go before they get reinforcements." The pelican took off and flew toward another lifeboat beacon, where the occupants had just finished fighting off more Covenant, but had not faired as well. Only three marines and a single crewman boarded the pelican, filling it to capacity.
"We are approaching Alpha Base," the pilot said an hour later. "The ODSTs were nice enough to take it off the Covenant's hands." The pelican touched down on top of a butte, with many ancient looking structures on it. They appeared to be made of a shiny grey metal or stone, meaning they were not Covenant, or else they would be the only color the aliens ever used, purple.
A master sergeant walked up and said, "Listen up marines; this is going to be your home for a while. Most of Autumn's crew is on the ground here, and we plan on being a pain in the ass to all the Covenant on this ring. We're eventually gonna get off this place, but until then this will be our base of operations. Go over there and see Petty Officer Turovlin. He'll tell you where you will be bunking."
O'Shea led the men over to Petty Officer Turovlin. "Sergeant O'Shea reporting for a place to sleep, sir" he said with a slight chuckle.
"You boys are lucky," the man responded. "We are all out of cubicles, so you will be inside that structure." He pointed a building on the far side of the butte that looked no different than the others. "It has natural rooms," he continued, "just hang these sheets in front." He gave them several tarps and some line and hooks, and went off to check on some supplies.
The marines walked into the building, and saw that half of inside had been tarped-off. "Hey," one of the resident marines said indignantly. "They didn't say that we'd be sharing this place."
"Well, why do you think they told us to be on one side only, dumbass?" a sergeant, obviously the platoon leader, said to the marine. "Name's Petrola, and you?"
"O'Shea. Hope you don't mind if we bunk on the other side."
"Not at all, make yourself at home."
"Well looky here," a marine in Andrew's squad said. "They gave us a view." There was a rectangular piece of the wall cut away that gave a view of the surrounding territory. "On second thought," he added, "what happens when it rains?"
"I don't think you are going to have to worry about much rain around here," Waldron said observing the lack of trees and other tall vegetation. That statement was wrong of course, after the chief and the ODSTs left to rescue Captian Keyes and get supplies from the Autumn, it started to rain. The water did in fact come through the hole in the wall, but it was stopped by a tarp hung over the "window."
Waldron laid down in his "area" as the marines called them. The building was little more than a covered hallway with three rooms built off to each side, and a wall separating them. The walls were covered in strange symbols that Waldron stared at while he waited to fall asleep. Little did he or any of the other defenders of Alpha Base know that they would soon be faced with the greatest threat the galaxy had ever known.
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