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Forsaken Forefathers part VII: Arctic Warfare
Posted By: AlphaBravo343 and Havok
Date: 25 June 2003, 7:02 AM


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0900 Hours, February 12, 2553 (Military Calendar)/
Fort Siberia on the surface of Micha VIII

      "Let's run through this one more time," spoke the Forerunner interrigator to the Prophet hovering several feet in front of him, "You not only strayed from the path that was set for you to follow, but you abused the power we left you, and imposed tyranny on your brother races. And on top of that, you attempted to wipe out our origin race to stop them from becoming as great as us."
      "Yes, the rate at which the humans had progressed in technology with no help from your artifacts and instructions was alarming, and they would have destroyed us given the time and opportunity," replied the prophet, shifting uncomfortably as it stared at the ODST trooper standing next to it.
      "How do you know that they would have destroyed you? The humans had hoped for a peaceful encounter with any alien species, and you immediately began to slaughter them. You knew the plans we had laid for them, and you, and that they would have the best outcome. But instead, you chose to wage war on them and hope that we wouldn't come back." The Forerunner interrigator was becoming angry.
      "Fighting the vermin proved to be arduous and more difficult than we expected, but had you come back a month later, we would have destroyed them. Their destruction was the will of the gods," scoffed the prophet.
      "The gods had no such intention, you had no such influence. You thought that the gods were on your side, but let me tell you something, the gods you know, are not true. You created false gods, and used your mental abilities as spectacles of "their" power. You fooled the masses into thinking that your actions were ordained and set by the gods, you twisted the truth and lied to your own people."
      "That is irrelevant though," continued the interrigator, "What is relevant is the location of your fellow cohorts. Tell us where the rest of your leadership is, and we will endeavor to make your death relatively painless," the interrigator said, using a phrase coined by the Forerunner to its criminal offenders.
      "I will tell you nothing, what you are doing is pointless. You will never defeat us. With all your technology and all your soldiers, you will still never defeat us," the prophet replied flatly, but with a hint of fear and uncertainty.
      The interrigator grinned and stood. The prophet's gaze followed the interrigator as he walked to a table. On the table was a single syringe, and a small vial.

____________________________________________________________


      The two Phantom dropships, refitted with white hull plating, swooped low over the snow covered hills. The snowstorm had been raging for a few units now, and the two dropships still pushed through the thick sleet and snow toward their destination.
      "We drop in, move into the Forerunner bunker, extract the Exhalted one, and retreat to the dropships. If we run into trouble, or if something terrible happens, an entire battalion of troops and armor support are position just south of the outpost," spoke Field Master Ganumee' to the squad of Elites and Brutes seated inside the Phantom.
      The Elites had been fitted with white armor, and these particular Brutes had been raised on an arctic world, and had developed white fur. The strike team was specially trained for infiltration.
      "And remember, no weapons fire unless absolutely necessary, we move in stealthily. Rely on your tactics and knowledge, not your weapons." Though they were going to rely on stealth, they were still armed to the teeth. The Elites carried plasma rifles, grenades, pistols and other stealth tools. The Brutes were armed with their normal arm cannons, and carried incendiary plasma grenades.
      Ganumee' looked at all of his troops, they were ready.

      The two Phantoms touched down just outside of the west perimeter of the outpost, the least heavily gaurded area.
      The troops clambered out of the large ships and into the unforgiving storm. They moved foreward for two kilometers until they could see the outpost. Ganumee' pulled out his optical intensifyer and zoomed the eye in on the outpost. Two Forerunner soldiers, clad in white armor, were stationed outside of a rear entry access hatch. That was their way in. The stike team, almost invisible in the storm, moved closer to the garrison and stopped when they reached the west wall. Ganumee' motioned for two of the Elites to move up and silently kill the two warriors. The two Elites crept forward slowly, and had almost reached the two warriors when one jerked its head toward the Elites and with lightning fast speed, raised its weapon and fired a small ballistic missile from a lower tube on its rifle. The missile slammed into the first Elite and threw its remnants away from its standing point.
      Ganumee' growled and shouted for the squad to open fire. The Brutes opened up with their cannons and left smoldering craters where one of the Forerunner commandos had been standing. The other fired another missile at one of the Brutes and the resulting explosing obliterated what had once been the Brute's torso.
      "Reinforcements!!!, send reinforcements to Fort Siberia now!, we are under Covenant att-," was all the soldier got out before his torso was separated from his legs by a blast from a Brute's cannon. Ganumee' spat, and reached for his own communicator.
      "This is Field Master Ganumee', send in the battalion, suprise failed. We will press into the complex and attempt to extract the Exhalted," he growled into the small communicator and turned it off. This mission was going to be difficult before, but now it seemed impossible.

____________________________________________________________


      Klaxons blared and red emergency lights winked to life and flashed throughout the garrison. They were under attack. The Forerunner interrigator shot an accusng glare at the prophet, who sat calmly, staring back.
      "You better hope that those alarms weren't set off by Covenant," said the interrigator as he loaded an M6D pistol given to him by one of the ODSTs, "because if they were, then you wont be leaving this room alive."

      The strike team stormed through the corridors until they reached the holding and interrigation area. The team paused by the door, and Ganumee' took a brief moment to look at his troops, they nodded and he pressed the release button to open the door.

      The door behing the interrigator slid open to reveal a squad of Elites and Brutes. One of the Elites stepped forward and pointed its plasma rifle at the interrigator.
      "Give us the Exhalted, or die. Choose," it said maliciously. The Interrigator open his mouth to reply, but before he could, a single shot rang out behind him. Ganumee's eyes went wide and he began to tremble with fury. The interrigator turned slowly to find the prophet slumped in its hovering chair, a sinlg bullet wound in it's right temple, and the ODSTs battle rifle aimed at the prophets head, the barrel still smoking. The interrigator turned back to the Elite, and looked blankly into its white eyes.

      The human had shot the Exhalted. Ganumee' felt the fury surge through him, making his extremeties tingle and his pulse pound through his head. He squeezed the trigger of his rifle and sent a plasma bolt into the face of the emotionless Forerunner interrigator. Then turned to the remaining two soldiers standing next to the dead prophet. They opened fire and the squad jumped into action. The firefight lasted about 45 seconds. Three Elites lay dead, along with the two human soldiers. The squad moved out of the garrison and into the tundra, or what had been a tundra. It was now cratered and smoldering as the battle raged between Human and Forerunner forces and the Covenant forces.

A group of Wraiths lobbed a salvo of plasma bombs at the human Scorpion ranks, two of the tanks melted into slag and sank deeper into the snow. The Scorpions returned fire and destroyed several of the Wraiths. Infantry scattered across the mile wide area were engaged in furious battle and hand to hand combat. Warthogs spun and plowed through the Covenant ranks, mowing down the soldiers with LAAG fire. And Covenant Ghosts did the same among the human and Forerunner ranks. A group of banshees swooped in and opened fire on an LRV squad of rocket jockeys. The jockeys returned fire and rockets streaked into the air, destroying several of the banshees.
      The battle raged for three hours until the Covenant decided to pull their forces from the area. When the forces had left, they left it decimated. The outpost was destroyed, the smoldering rubble lay in heaps. The battlefield was cratered and littered with corpses. The snow was stained a mixture of reds, blues, and purples. Warthog, Ghost, Banshee, Scorpion, and Wraith chassis lay burnt or burning among the bodies. 300 Marine and Forerunner casualties weighed against just shy of one thousand Covenant casualties were tallied. The Covenant had fought with sheer bloodlust, rather than their quiet diligence. They were blinded by their fury, and they suffered for their lack of self control. But the Covenant were far from finished, the may have lost this battle, but the war was undecided as of yet.

to be continued...





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