Desert Brigade: Part 3
Posted By: Martin Cahill<MJCDragoon@aol.com>
Date: 11 October 2004, 1:45 AM
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Desert Brigade: Part 3 "Showdown"
Dinner that night was a solemn affair. In Felix's memory it was the quietest he had ever heard the men. To them it seemed to be a last meal, each man condemned to death in only several hours. Felix did not eat that night. Instead he sat in the barracks with Sergeant Speirs. They sat in silence cleaning their weapons; Speirs was cleaning his rifle and check his sights on it, while Felix was cleaning his two SMGs who he affectionately called Eleanor and Cyan. By the time they were done cleaning the men started returning to the barracks and doing what they had just finished. Speirs and Felix walked by the armory to pick up ammo and already a line had formed. They waited patiently for their turn and quickly got the ammo they desired. They went back to the barracks which had emptied when the ODSTs left to get their ammo and they tried to fall asleep. No one really got much sleep that night. Many soldiers played cards into the morning of the next day, while others sent vid-mail to their families back on Earth, and still others read the Bible.
At 0600 the call came for the snipers and cavalry units to get into position. Felix said, "See you when the bullets fly" to Speirs as he left with the cavalry units. By 0700 the rest of the brigade was to assemble as per instructed. At 0830 Colonel Matthias stood near Felix at the front of the group looking at what was thought to be a sandstorm through his binoculars. However, those who did look at the cause of the dust saw the Covenant at the base of the cloud. Leading the front of the Covenant army was as Matthias predicted Ghosts, but what startled him were what followed a line maybe half a mile long of Jackals and behind them were Grunts and Hunters and ever so often some Brutes. Beyond that were the Elites commanding the army forward. Even behind the Elites were Wraith tanks, as well as a squadron of about thirty Banshees. The Covenant army halted a mere half mile away from the Human lines. Matthias handed the binoculars to Felix and asked, "What do you make of their formation?"
"Well, sir, it looks like they set up as a phalanx; the Jackals' shields will deflect most of the small arms fire until our Warthogs make them road-kill, but it seems that their confidence lies in the Jackals, if we break their lines some of the Grunts may likely disobey orders and retreat, but the Brutes and Hunters pose a really big threat to our armor. Even in their chain of command is broken with the Elites being killed the Hunters and Brutes may yet push them forward. Also, the Wraiths and Banshees will need to be obliterated within the first moments or we may suffer heavy casualties otherwise."
"Sound advice," said Matthias thoughtfully, "Yes, our Scorpions need to adjust targets our snipers need to be notified of the secondary targets then they can fire at will. Smyth," he said to a radioman behind him, "Tell the Scorpion crews to concentrate fire on the Wraiths before finding new targets. Also, notify rocket squads to make sure the Banshees are eliminated in one fell swoop. Tell the snipers that their secondary targets are the Brutes and Hunters, then they can fire at will."
Smyth relayed the message and Felix heard the whirring of turrets adjusting direction.
"So it begins," said Matthias as a single Ghost moved from the Covenant formation. It halted roughly halfway between the two armies. Felix jumped into the Warthog that was to carry him to the negotiator. A few moments later he was standing in front of a golden armored Elite.
"My name is Atra 'Solnoee'" said the Elite in broken English.
"My name is Felix," said Felix staring the Elite in the face, "I am here to discuss terms of surrender."
"You will drop your weapons now and hand over the artifact, you will be treated fairly as prisoners," said the Elite its lower mandibles clicking.
"Sounds reasonable. Just one thing...what is the artifact you are searching for we seem to be out..."
"You useless infidel! I demand you surrender the artifact now!"
"I have one condition for the surrender of the artifact..."
"What is your petty demand!?!"
"Your death," said Felix taking his concealed knife and thrusting it deep into the Elite's throat spraying him with purple blood. There was an explosion of noise from behind him as the Scorpions, snipers, and rockets opened fire. The effect of this fire devastated the Covenant ranks. The roar of the tank shells as these zoomed overhead was deafening. In front of him the Covenant ranks exploded. Several large plasma beams from the surviving Wraith tanks bore down on Felix. He quickly dodged out of the path long before the plasma slammed into the ground. However, his Warthog escort had been hit. He searched the wreckage and quickly found his two SMGs lying under the driver's burnt body and he took the man's grenades as well. He looked to the Covenant ranks as he raised his weapons. They were an ocean of activity; the Ghosts had charged forward and the scream of whatever remaining banshees quickly died under a series of explosions. The surviving mortar tanks had disappeared behind a column of smoke, their plasma shots falling short of the human ranks. From behind him Felix heard a roar of engines as the Warthogs surged forward and behind them the tanks moved up. Volley after volley of sniper rounds hit the Covenant ranks and where one alien fell another five rose to take its place. Felix remembering where he was ran toward the advancing Ghosts. The distance between him and them was quickly closed and found himself being stared down by an Elite in a Ghost only a hundred feet away. In two seconds the Ghost was upon him. Just when the Ghost was about to hit him he jumped, landing on its front. The Elite yelled something incoherent as Felix kicked off the front of it and slammed his feet into the alien's skull with a satisfying crack. Now in the driver's seat he turned it around and drove toward the other Ghosts firing with the plasma cannons on the front.
He had already taken out two other Ghosts when the Covenant pilots realized their lines had been compromised. After circling the two wrecks of his first victims He found himself staring down another Ghost. He and the Brute in the other Ghost charged toward each other. This was the deadliest game of chicken Felix had ever played and there was no way he was going to blink and he knew the Brute wasn't going to either. About halfway through the death charge Felix pulled the pin on a frag grenade and stuck it to the accelerator. By the time he had counted to three the two Ghosts were a mere ten feet from each other Felix bailed off. The Brute who had far too much forward momentum to avoid the crash hit the driverless Ghost at close to full speed and both Ghosts had been entangled. The Brute let out a roar which was quickly drowned out by the explosion of the frag grenade which caused a secondary explosion which sent metal shrapnel flying in a ten foot radius killing a passing Ghost pilot.
By now the Warthogs and the Ghost were within range of each other and both sides began firing at each other. Explosions rent the line as Ghosts and Warthogs alike exploded sending their drivers and passengers to the ground. Several of the Warthogs had broken through the Ghosts and advanced upon the Covenant line. There was an explosion of sound as the Scorpions fired into the Jackals standing in front of the rest of the Covenant. A shower of green plasma reached up from the Covenant line and arced down into the path of the oncoming Warthogs. The dead Jackals quickly provided patches where the Covenant had no shields in front of them and the Warthog drivers quickly exploited the weakness running over any alien in front of them shouting incoherently and passengers fired into the ranks.
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