Absolution: Final Chapter
Posted By: Havok<detoxpunk@hotmail.com>
Date: 6 August 2004, 11:39 PM
Read/Post Comments
|
ABSOLUTION
CHAPTER VIII
"You will smash the entire area!" the gunny screamed at his men, who were securely strapped in to the buffeting Pelican. "This is not a surgical mission. This is not a situation which requires the least bit of discretion in the way you use your weapons. Destroy anything in your path that is not human." The marine had a fierce look in his eyes. The look of a man finally allowed to fight.
The sky around the descending dropships was ablaze with plasma fire. The underbellies of the Pelicans deflected the incoming shots with impunity. The few plasma trails that landed on unarmored parts of the hull failed to do enough damage to render the craft useless.
The dropships plowed through the dense forest, splintering trees with their immense velocity. Engines whined in protest as they struggled to slow downward momentum. Fighting against gravity, the back blast scorched the forest floor, incinerating leaves, bushes, and Covenant air defenses.
"GO! GO! GO!" the sergeant yelled, hustling his men onto the blackened forest floor. The first men out of the dropships sprayed the edge of the drop zone with thunderous suppression fire. The thick foliage wilted under the weights of nano-jacketed bullets, coughing up neon blood, revealing the places where their enemy lay in wait.
The marines dropped to the ground and reloaded while those pouring out of the ships behind them fired over their heads. The constant rate of heavy fire was sure to destroy anything that might try to jump them. The Pelicans dusted off, leaving the platoon on its own. As they pulled out of the treetops, the men spread out and started off through the forest. Their improved armor blended nicely with the surrounding foliage. The armor had been tarnished and repainted with digitally enhanced camouflage to break up their outlines.
The "smart" armor sampled the environment it was in, and reproduced the pattern and color accordingly. Not quite as good as the elite's active camo, but what the chameleon paint lacked in total stealth, the suit more than made up in durability.
The gunny was on point, assault rifle at the ready, finger on the trigger. If a leaf so much as twitched the wrong way in a gentle breeze, anything behind it was sure to get cooked. His marines were spread out behind him in a wedge formation, constantly checking to their front and sides. Their orders were to recon the area, but the primary goal was to kill as many of those Covenant bastards as they could.
A faintly outlined object dropped from the branched above the men on the left flank. It crashed into one soldier, sending him sprawling. The men next to him pivoted and fired at the racing object. Thermal scanners in their goggles clicked to life and the once invisible object was seen clear as day. The camouflaged elite dodged and weaved, avoiding most of the round tossed at him. One wrong move cost the alien its life. A marine on the other flank fired his grenade launcher. The high explosive round caught the elite in the head, lopping the front of its face clean off. Purple blood spouted from the jagged hole like a fountain, tainting the ground. The body toppled over, lifeless.
As the soldiers watched the spectacle, several more elites jumped from cover and launched themselves at the formation. One golden elite wielded a plasma sword, which caught one unlucky marine in the armor gap between his shoulder and helmet, slicing his neck in two. As he collapsed, the armor pinched the blade, dragging the elite down with the weapon. A hail of bullets tore through its body and it twitched as the blood drained from a thousand holes.
A medevac was called immediately. The enraged men spread out in a circle around their fallen comrade and emptied clip after clip into the forest. They spread out from their positions, shooting at anything that dared move.
The Pelican dropped through the trees and the man was hauled onboard. A crate of clips was pushed out at the craft ascended back into the sky. The marines were called back to reload and reorganize. Then they resumed the hunt.
___________________________________________________________
Corporal Whol hung on to the mounted machine gun for dear life as the driver tore around a bend in the river. A ring of confused and frightened grunts squealed as the warthog slammed into their midst, sending several to mangled, bloody deaths. Whol swung the gun around on its mounts and opened up. The bullets impacting on the water threw up trails of spray as he expertly walked the round onto his targets. The spraying water mixed with covenant blood as chunks of flesh were gouged out of the alien bodies.
He stopped firing as a second warthog rounded the bend and its own gunner took over the target shooting. Whol turned back and aligned his barrels over the head of the driver. The heavy tread on the warthog's tires threw up an amazing amount of water in two long rooster tails.
Search and Destroy missions. My kind of operation. There were few things the marine loved more than an honest-to-god turkey shoot. Military high command had deployed a large portion of available forces to randomized S&D missions wherever and whenever the Covenant were found. No real valid strategic objective other than projecting UNSC military power far and wide, and stabbing fear into the minds of the Covenant, and throwing them off balance while human forces gained fresh blood and upgraded armor and weaponry.
The driver wheeled the recon vehicle into another tight turn at top speed, jarring the corporal's senses. Soon enough, the UNSC would have enough manpower to begin planetary takeovers. When that phase was reached, all the rules would change. Whol was ready to take the fight to the Covenant's doorstep, and it seemed that day was fast approaching.
|
