Hit Hard Ch. 4: --Reclaimer--
Posted By: Nick Kang<digitai430@yahoo.com>
Date: 18 February 2004, 10:58 PM
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A sudden light. The sound of something heavy moving. Voices. Alien ones. Fafaw opened his eyes to be confronted by two Human soldiers. They yelled something and pointed their rifles toward him. He didn't know what they had said, so he just screamed and dropped his pistol. One walked around him and put some metal rings around his hands. They were connected by chains. It seemed he was being taken prisoner.
The Pelicans interior was silent, just the rumbling of the engines. No one in it talked. The Chief looked around. The rear gunner stood motionless on the gunning platform. Sergeant Johnson sat across from the Chief. Eight other ODSTs sat, totally obscured by their armor, inside the dropship. The Cheif got up and looked out the doorway. Dark cities raced by in ruins. The Covenant had grabbed for Earth City, but were beaten back. Even so, the Marines holding the metropolis had suffered severe casualties from the near-invasion. The Chief and his squad had been reassigned to help out the guards.
"Okay, guys, five minutes to dropoff, repeat, five minutes to dropoff. LZ is cleared." said a deep male voice over the COM.
"Okay, Marines," Sarge said, "the second we land, I want you guys to take up defensive positions around the capitol building. The Earth City falls, the planet will soon follow."
"Yes, sir!" the ODSTs yelled.
John felt a rumbling as the landing gear extended to touch the ground. The ramp fell open and the ten Marines ran out. The Chief was astonished by what he saw. The Marines assigned to guard the city must have been top-notch, seeing as even though the Covenant probably hit them hard, there were almost three-times as many alien bodies as there were Human. Gutted vehicles were scattered throughout the battlefield and firefigting crews were still trying to control the flames that licked up the charred and crumbling buildings. Sarge stayed with the Chief along with an ODST named Private Nick McOllis.
"Sanchez, I want you to help fortify that trench over there," Sarge said pointing to a deep trench that looked like it had been shelled several times.
"Yes, sir, but will there be any more squads coming to help?" McOllis asked.
"I don't know, the Covies have blocked transportation to all routes here by air accept one. That was the one we came in on. If any more soldiers are coming to fight here, it will take them a while." Sarge replied.
McOllis leveled his rifle and ran toward the trench. Sarge walked over to the capitol building where the seven other ODSTs had taken up positions. The Chief walked over to the trench that Sanchez had gone to. The outpost had been hit very hard. The dirt was caving in and there were a lot of bodies strewn throughout it. Many of the mounted weapons had been melted and were smoking. Only a few Marines remained in it. They manned what little mounted weapons there were left: a gatling gun here, an artillery cannon there. He was just about ready to sit down and clean out his rifle when a giant blue plasma blast flew overhead and smashed into the ground. Glass and molten metal sprayed over the Chief. No sooner had the blast hit then the Chief's COM snap on. It was Johnson.
"Chief, we need you to get your people ready for a fight! Our radar shows several platoons of Covies haulin' ass toward us. We could be dealin' with a real fight here, and we can't let Earth City fall!" the COM crackled.
"Yessir, we'll be sure to give them a big obstacle to get past." the Chief replied.
"You better, 'cause if you don't, this might mean the end of Earth!" Johnson's voice snapped off quickly as he terminated the connection.
"Okay people," John barked at the few Marines under his command, "the Covenant are making a march toward the city. It's our job to stop 'em!"
"Sir, yessir!" the Marines shouted back. They quickly took up defensive positions behind metal blocks that had been set on the ground around the trench. They also manned the last of the guns and fell silent.
Another plasma blast sailed through the sky and hit a burned-out building, which sent it falling to the ground. Several Longswords took off from the hangar of the base and flew over the fifty-foo wall surrounding the capitol building. There were explosions and the sounds of plasma fire as the Lonswords returned, minus two. No more siege artillery shots flew over the wall after that. The only sound there was was the pitter-patter of rain as it started to fall. The guards stood motionless for who-knows how long. Water trickled down the Chief's visor as the light rain turned into a downpour. It was hard to see anything that was more than fifty yards ahead of him. Soon, there was the sound of hover-vehicles. Plasma began to whine and the wall glowed red and began to melt. At once, all of the artillery cannons inside the wall were fired. Heavy projectiles arced over the wall and exploded, creating the sound of screaming Elites and wailing Grunts. As an accidental mishap, the wall also crumbled, giving the way for Covenant forces. Ther first several lines of the aliens had been demolished by the artillery barrage and the following lines were trying to catch up. The bullets began flying before the Coveant even knew what had happened. The next line of Covies were knocked down before they shook the confusion and returned fire. The few Marines out in the open were killed by the salvo of heat. Rockets screeched from the Marines and knocked out clumps of Elites and a few Hunters. A line of Ghosts flew out oof the ranks and fired. Defensive walls were melted and soldiers were killed. The Marines in the Chief's trench fired their gatling guns and slowly picked off the Ghosts. They were quickly destroyed and artillery cannons began thundering. Explosions appeared inside the Covenant formation and blew countless amounts of aliens apart. Two lines of Jackals ran to the front and overlapped their shields, creating the meneuver they commonly used. Only explosive weapons could break through their wall. Grenades and rockets detonated against their shields and wiped out the first line.
The Chief tossed a grenade over the Jackal wall and watched it explode, sending three Jackals flying. A rocket hit a shield and it overloaded, exposing the alien behind it and killing it and three others. A few Shadows appeared from the sides and fired. Plasma danced across the metal blocks protecting the trench and they began melting. The Chief poked his head abov the steel and felt his shields take several hits, so he ducked back down. He threw a grenade over the trench wall and heard a satisfying scream from an Elite and watch the carcass fly over the trench. He again poked his head over the steel blocks and activated the scope. He fired at the gunner of the next Shadow. The Elite's shields flickered and popped and the alien wailed and fell off the platform. A rocket barrage flew from the Marines guarding the Capitol building. The remaining Shadows exploded.
The Chief saw a Wraith blast rise above the Covenant lines and head for his trench.
[indent"Look out!" he yelled. The Marines were all able to get out of the trench as the plasma hit it and sent a wave of glass into the air. The Marines ran to reinforce the Capitol Building while the Chief joined a group of Marines pinned down behind a thick chunk of ddebris that was slowly being eaten away every time a plasma bolt hit it. He covered them as they got to the safety of the Capitol Building.
The Chief was so preoccupied covering the Marines he failed to notice the Ghost flying at him at incredible speed and was only several feet away from connecting with his head.
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