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Stranded at Home Final Part
Posted By: Dispraiser<dispraiser@netzero.com>
Date: 18 September 2003, 8:05 PM


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      We ran down the hallway, the locked doors on either side of the hallway glowing red. The Covenant on the other side were trying to melt their way through. It seemed as if the whole hallway was empty, bar one unlucky Grunt who was banging on a door trying to get into the locked hallways. He was quickly nullified. As we ran along the lines of unlocked doors most of the Marines noticed that the doors on every side were being shot from the other side. The Covenant were trying to melt their way into the control room. Soon the hallway forked, and the Marines ran down the open door to the right, the door opening to reveal the Covenant menace. The small patrol was lost or had determined that we had already taken control of the ship, but in either case they were armed and interfering with our plans. I hurled my last remaining frag grenade into the center of the group, and it bounced to a stop in the squad of Covenant. I stepped back and the door closed, concealing the explosion in the small entrance hallway. The deafening roar of the grenade was concealed, but still easily audible. I ran around the corner, the rest of the squad behind me and began firing. I couldn't hear the screams of the Covenant or Marines courtesy of the ring in my ears, but I knew to fire my rifle at the enemy. Red blood splashed on my clothes as the Marine next to me dropped dead, but the survivors continued to rush forward into the Covenant. Within a few eternal moments we were upon their lines, literally fighting tooth and claw with the enemy. I swung a plasma rifle down on the skull of one Grunt while firing at another during the downstroke. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in the back of my skull and I fell to the ground. I rolled onto my back and fired at the Elite who had hit me. His shields shimmered as a half dozen orbs of plasma hit him in the face. I puller the trigger in one deliberate motion, and the energy ball lurched forward from my rifle to his face, killing him. My head throbbing, and vision blurred I stumbled to my feet, an overcharged plasma pistol shot whirring past my face and down the hallway. A Grunt, running in the direction we had come from passed me before a quick burst of plasma gunfire from the remaining Marine destroyed what was remaining of his life. The lone surviving Grunt threw down his rifle and began running, screaming horribly. His life mirrored his terror in its final motions, and he dropped to the ground, dying a shameful death. One of the Marines radioed to Draco that the area immediately surrounding the reactor doors that had been breached was clear of Covenant soldiers. Draco replied and stationed three of the Marines with Human weaponry in the reactor, setting up similar defenses ass we had in the control room. I rubbed the wound on the back of my head, which was bleeding and matted my hair with blood. Oddly enough, I had more purple blood on me than red.




      In the control room six Marines paced nervously around the room. We had many more armaments as a result of our last battle, but were drawing closer to Awwek. Draco had briefed us on what to expect once we made it there, but it seemed as if there wasn't much of a plan. Apparently we were to expect that upon hearing a battle most of the Covenant on the ship would try to escape with extra valor, and the control room would be a hard place to defend. Luckily, moving through the ship would be very hard for them, and the battle might be over before they had a chance to get to us. Also, the bridge being in the center of the ship we were defended fairly well from boarders as well. One of the greater problems was the one that none of us wanted to acknowledge, that this was a suicide mission.

      "One minute until we come into Awwek's gunfire range. The Covenant may start firing as well. If you have any apologies to make to anyone, now would be the time. If you have a god to pray to and enough faith to believe that he still exists in this time of trial, pray. We will need your prayers." One of the humans, a Naval officer said.

      I silently prayed for luck as we entered Awwek airspace. Several viewscreens of the defensive lines appeared. I noticed that Awwek's walls were crumbled, and what appeared to be a large mushroom cloud was clearing outside the area. The defenses were weak, and only light AA batteries focused on the cruiser. Suddenly the lights on the ship flickered for a brief moment, and I watched on one of the viewscreens as a plasma bolt hurtled itself into one of the Covenant ships. The explosion flashed, but the Covenant ship's shields held up through the attack. Suddenly our ship trembled violently as a plasma bolt from a second craft roared into the port of the ship. Suddenly I was thrown off my feet as the ship accelerated. I grabbed onto the nearest column as the ship hurtled directly into the second ship's lower bow. The front of the ship was thrown up in the air as the second plasma shot it was charging lurched into the distance. It dissipated in the distance. The ides of our ship glowed once again as another bolt lanced into the first ship, penetrating the shields and ripping the ship in half. Blue explosions coursed along the craft as it fell from the sky into the ocean, a plume of water nearly the size of Awwek itself exploding upward as the ship exploded again, this time underwater. Our ship sat in the air stuck in the side of the other ship making a vague T shape. We had nearly penetrated the other ship and had clearly hit the bridge, it wasn't responding. Jenna spun our ship placing the cruiser's corpse between us and the third Covenant cruiser. Again she accelerated, ramming the enemy ship as a bolt of plasma intended for our ship was absorbed by the remains of the other. Its shield took all of the damage of the attack and spun our ship out of control. Our cruiser, accompanied by the destroyed cruiser fell to the ocean. As the ship hit I was thrown across the control room, only to land on the fore wall and stick. The ship was on its nose. Suddenly the damaged hull began to groan as we slipped off the continental shelf and deeper into the ocean. A ceiling in the room cracked and water began to seep in. I was stranded in the room, the doors on the ceiling and I watched as water spilled into the room. A large blue alien's corpse was thrown from its resting place and into the room. It hovered in the air for a moment before settling its rotation, spike side down. The huge monster's body descended towards me. I smiled as I prepared to die.

       Just a little afternote...
This is the longest running fanfic I have ever written, and exactly one year ago yesterday the file Stranded at home was created on my computer.





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