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Battle of Croton: Chapter 2 - At least we're not dead...yet
Posted By: Earl Hershberger (Jester) / Trevor White (Boxer)<twhite1721@hotmail.com>
Date: 11 April 2003, 2:45 AM
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Battle of Croton
Chapter 2 - At least we're not dead......yet
"Oh shit" was all Rennerd could say, the nearest Elite clubbed him and Rennerd was thrown into unconsciousness. When he awoke he found himself in a cell.
"If being captured wasn't bad enough" came the familiar, if not grating, voice of Shandor, "this purple is cruel and unusual punishment."
Rennerd's vision began to clear and he found that he wasn't the only one in the cell, his spastic radioman Shandor was with him.
"Aw c'mon, I'd rather be dead than stuck with him." Rennerd whispered to himself. But he also had to agree with him, the purple that bathed the cell was nauseating...at best.
Soon the voices of a number of marines could be heard, most were grumbling about being caught, some were frantically trying to come up with plans for escape, and a few...well actually only one was panicking.
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! THERE'S NO ESCAPE!" Shandor yelled.
"Stow it marine or god help me I'm gonna...." Rennerd was cut off as an Elite in spiffy looking black armor rimmed with gold turned off the force field that acted as the door to Rennerd's cell and yanked him out by his collar.
"HEY! WHAT THE FUCK! LET GO OF ME YOU STUPID BASTARD!" Rennerd yelled as he was dragged through the corridors of sickly purple...well he didn't know where he was, that would soon change however.
Rennerd was taken into a huge chamber, inside the chamber there was a huge curved table. He dragged to his feet by the elite that had removed him from the Covenant holding cell and almost immediately incredibly bright spot lights came on revealing the, for the lack of a better word, people behind the table. Rennerd couldn't believe it, he had only herd rumors of what the leaders of the Covenant religion looked liked and sure enough these three creatures fit those descriptions to a tee. Behind the table sat three Covenant Prophets, each one had on an ornamental head dress, flowing robes, and seemed to float in midair (no doubt another gross misuse of Covenant technology). The middle Prophet, whose headdress was significantly bigger than those of his counter parts, began to speak. Rennerd was immediately forced to bow (in reality he was shoved to the floor) by the elite standing behind him.
"Why have you come to this planet?" the Prophet asked in surprisingly good English.
"Why do you think we came here, to kill you and the rest of your entire fucking race before you kill us!" Rennerd retorted and spat. He didn't get away with his remark; the elite behind him punched him hard in the kidneys, lucky for Rennerd he was already on the floor.
The three prophets began to mumble to each other in an alien language that Rennerd could have never hoped to understand.
"Z'arlemee, bring the human some food." The prophet ordered the elite that had brought Rennerd into the chamber. Z'arlemee knew better than to refuse an order from a High Prophet, so without hesitation he brought Rennerd a small tube of something and a canteen that had been taken from one of the marines when they were captured.
"You must be hungry, eat." the prophet directed Rennerd.
"Never, I'd rather die first." Rennerd shot back.
The high prophet waved his hand and Z'arlemee grabbed Rennerd by his jaw, forced his mouth open, and squeezed the contents of the small tube into his mouth. The contents of the small tube was the foulest thing Rennerd had ever tasted yet it seemed to give me renewed vigor.
"What you just ate was a vitamin paste designed specifically to rejuvenate even the most tired soldier" the prophet said.
Rennerd spit out as much as he could onto the chamber floor, "Fuck, they weren't kidding when they said the bad tasting shit was good for you" he mumbled as he tried in vain to cleanse his mouth of the foul tasting paste.
"Wise words for such a simple species" the prophet said.
"Why the hell am I here? I didn't know the Covenant took prisoners" Rennerd asked after having given up on getting rid of the foul taste in his mouth.
"We don't, to us it's a weakness. But this was a special circumstance, and special circumstances require different methods.
"What the hell are you babbling about?"
"You're here because we both know that your forces are vastly outclassed in space and that our ground forces have been unable to gain anymore ground and in fact are losing ground." the prophet said.
"Then what the hell do we have to talk about, we both know the score." Rennerd responded.
"Since the fall of your military HQ on the planet, I believe you called it Reach, your forces have been dwindling. It has been my suggestion, since before this cursed war began, that our races should be at peace but others have decided that your race is not worthy of the gifts of the gods. So, I suggest that both of our forces immediately declare a cease-fire."
"You're talking about a truce between the Humans and Covenant? You've got to be kidding!? My marines would never go for it, neither would I for that matter." Rennerd responded in a stunned tone.
"I suggested this kind of response. So, in exchange for a truce I and the other prophets on this planet have decided that we will willingly surrender ourselves to your forces. You will also be returned to your men."
Rennerd was shocked, up until now he thought he'd seen everything; he'd seen millions die when the Covenant mercilessly glassed a planet, he'd seen the ferocity and viciousness of Covenant troops, and he'd seen many of his good friends die right in front of his eyes.
"I'll give you 1 of your hours to decide, take him away." the prophet waved his hand and Z'arlemee dragged Rennerd back to his cell.
Back in the prophet's chamber, "Do you think he fell for it?" one of the lesser prophets asked the high prophets.
"I don't know. I wouldn't put it past the humans to see right through our plan." the high prophet responded.
"You honestly think that the humans are developed enough to understand the complexities of our plan. The High Prophet Almighty himself has said that the humans are under-developed. " the lesser prophet asked.
"You don't know what you're talking about. The High Prophet Almighty summoned the counsel of prophets before this war ever began, it was there that we decided to proliferate the idea that the humans were under-developed and lesser evolved than we are. It's all a lie, the humans could have been the greatest allies we would ever have if it hadn't been for that glory seeking fool that we sent to make first contact in the system the humans call Harvest."
"You mean that the humans could be..."
"Silence, those things are not to be discussed within these walls."
With that the high prophet sent everyone out of the chamber, leaving him with his thoughts. The high prophet thought to himself for a very long time, most of his thoughts were centered on whether his plan would work and if it did could the humans pull it off like he had planned.
Back in the holding cells Rennerd was still in shock over what he had heard not more than 10 minutes ago. "SIR, ARE YOU OKAY SIR!" Shandor continually asked.
In a flash Rennerd had gone from shock to anger, and stood up and grabbed Shandor's shoulders and slammed him into the wall. "If you don't shut the FUCK up I'm going to make sure that you don't get out of this alive. You here me soldier." Rennerd said through gritted teeth.
"I'm.....sorry....I...uh...." Shandor stuttered.
"Alright, we have to get out of here. Those Covie bastards are planning something...something big" Rennerd said, after having let Shandor fall to the floor.
"What are you talking about sir?" Shandor asked.
"The Covenant are trying to broker a planet wide truce. It sounds too good to be true, and it I think it is." Rennerd said.
"The Covenant want peace" Shandor said, in a rather loud voice. "Not so loud Shandor!" Rennerd whispered, "I don't want the rest of the men to know."
"What are we going to do sir?"
"You speak French Shandor?"
"Yes sir, why?"
*"First, we have to get out of here, where ever here is. Second, we need to 'requisition' us some weapons. Third, we need to find that nuke....I want to leave the Covenant a little present"* Rennerd said (in French), he then continued to outline his plan. It was a daring plan....actually it was an insane plan, and it might just work.
About an hour later...at least it seemed like an hour. The high prophet that had talked to Rennerd earlier that day came into the call block, beckoned all of the Elite guards out of the room and then floated over to Rennerd's cell.
"I'd like to talk to you" the prophet said.
"If you've come for my decision, it's NO" Rennerd responded in an insolent tone.
"I haven't come for that" the prophet hit a few buttons on his chair, "there, now we can talk. I've turned off the monitoring devices."
"What do you want now?"
"I want you to help me get out of here."
"How the hell am I supposed to do that, I don't even know where here is."
"You're in a Forerunner facility on the second largest continent on this planet."
"Then how do you explain the Covenant holding cells?"
"We've made some...alterations."
"I'm sure you have...."
"As a gesture of good faith I'm going to release you and your men." The prophet keyed a few more buttons on his chair and all of the force fields turned off.
"You really want us to get you out of here?" Rennerd asked, he was again shocked by the way this Covenant acted.
"Yes, I do. What I told you in the counsel chamber had been the truth; I do believe that we should have been allies instead of enemies. I don't believe in our reasons for fighting this war, I would like to offer my knowledge and services to your people."
Rennerd and Shandor, who had been asleep until the force fields went down, were standing there in complete shock. Again the prophet keyed a few buttons on his chair and a panel in the wall silently opened and a rack holding plasma rifles and plasma pistols emerged from the opening.
"Here are some weapons; with these I hope you will help both myself and your men."
"Alright, we'll help you....but first you have to tell me where they took our weapons when they brought us here, I've got a surprise in store for your old buddies" Rennerd smugly said to the floating prophet.
Next Chapter: It's like Christmas...without all the love and stuff
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