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Force 81 Part V: A Devil's Torment
Posted By: NobleWard
Date: 17 January 2003, 4:37 am
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(Note to Readers: Keep up with the comments. This is my favorite chapter written so far, so be sure to tell me what you think, good and bad alike please. Thanks.
~Noble)
"PVT. VEER, we need those pilots down NOW!!" The Sergeant's voice boomed into Veer's comm as he stared dumb founded from his emplacement, looking at the invasion force heading towards his home colony of Elysium II. His eyes focused on through his night vision sights onto an incoming Shadow's driver. The rifle recoiled against his shoulder heavily as he rapidly squeezed the trigger twice in tandem. He watched the Elite's shield flicker with the first shot impacting below his sternum and then watched as the target jerked his head back as the second shot pierced through his cranium, sending the troop carrier and all it's occupants veering into another transport in the engagement group. Four Elites flew out of their respectful vehicles and hit the ground with a thud as one of the two pilot-less Shadows slammed to the ground on top of one of them. The dying Elites screamed their death howl as mortar explosions ripped craters into the grassy plain around them and chain gun fire erupted from the UNSC forces settled around the large colony city. Jim gasped at the destruction caused at his own hand, seemingly amazed at what one well placed bullet could do. Unfortunately, the armored division of the invasion force had crested the hills surrounding the colony. Wraiths, their cannons gleaming, opened fire with plasma mortar in arcs raining down on the marine forces and the entire colony city. Gun emplacements exploded as the marines manning them screamed in agony. Shadows zoomed in closer, signs of impending doom, now opening fire on the marine gunners posted in the bunkers around the city. Veer's comm went crazy with frantic calls for medics and evacs, all which were for sure to fall on near to deaf ears
"Jim, haul your gear out of here. We need to fall back to evac points." Jim's friend Alex Brady grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed towards the erupting city. Jim and Alex had been buddies since training days, Alex working with Jim as a spotter for Veer's sniping. They worked well as a team, Jim being able to focus on his target completely and Alex watching his buddy's surroundings for him, allowing him to get in the shots that needed to be taken. With havoc all around their guard tower, Alex had left his chain gun post and grabbed his equipment, looking out at the Pelican drop ships landing down all over the city in the designated evacuation zones. The sun was low and had almost gone down as Jim flicked off his night vision and stood amazed at the scene played out in the city behind him. Pelicans were hastily loading civilians into their safe thresholds as marines retreated towards the drop zones as his radio erupted with new activity announcing different Pelican approaches and landings all across the colony. Plasma mortar crashed into the city's buildings, blowing them into debris which rained down into the streets. Jim threw his rifle over his shoulder and climbed down from the guard tower, his feet slipping nervously over the slick metal steps as he followed Alex down the entry ladder. Jim had barely been in the Corps for two months now. He was only 21 and fresh out of training, and the live ammunition exploding and erupting around him was not controlled or imaginary. His home was under siege, and he was still nervous as he shouldered his rifle with wavering hands to take his shots. Both he and Alex hit the ground early, skipping the last three rungs of the ladder, and let out into a sprint. More explosions. LAAG fire. Jim reeled at the sight of his Sergeant laying dead near a fresh crater, his body in more pieces than he wanted to count. Alex plugged on, his assault rifle at ready. Suddenly a Shadow burst through the fortified entrance of the city, just twenty yards from Jim and Alex, and opened fire on another group of retreating marines. The soldiers let out feeble, suppressed cries as the plasma seared their skin, burning deep into their bodies. One daring soldier popped out of the coverage of a mortared building and greeted the Covenant transport with a Jackhammer missile through the hover engine, erupting it into a flaming piece of slag metal, it's occupants' screams not heard over the explosion. Jim fell to his knees, being overwhelmed by the violence around him and mumbled a prayer underneath his breath as he looked at the blood stained street beneath his knees. Alex picked him up to his feet and set him running again.
"Get a hold of yourself Jim. We need to move."
"I can't take it Alex, I can't do it..."
An explosion cut the two short as Banshees screamed into view and a Pelican erupted into flames mid take off, it's remains crashing to the ground in flames, surely killing the civilians waiting below for the next take off as well as all the occupants. More screams as an explosion ripped the launch pad it had just taken off of into pieces. Havoc erupted onto the comm link as a frantic call for Longsword escorts went out from all the transport pilots.
"Oh Jesus..." All Jim could think of in that brief moment was his wife and child, among the civilian population awaiting evac. Had they been on that Pelican? Had they been on the launch pad? "Please God..."
"Come on Jim, over there! An evac!"
A Pelican had landed at a launch pad only thirty feet away as civilians and marines poured into the passenger seats.
"I can't Alex! I need to find Kelly and Zack! I won't leave until they're on a carrier out of here!"
"Jim, they're probably already dead! We need to go now!" Alex grabbed Jim's arm and dragged him towards the Pelican.
"No Alex! I'm gonna find them! Go if you want, but I'm not leaving!"
Jim pushed himself away from Alex and pulled out his pistol sidearm, dropping his sniper rifle as dead weight. Alex looked at his training buddy one last time before running onto the Pelican carrier, running into it's belly without regret. Brady's last vision was of the stars overhead as the Pelican's blast doors closed on him, leaving the whole passenger section in darkness...
Veer barreled into the streets, towards the evac zone nearest his family's home in hopes they had been there before the attack. The street lights shimmered as another explosion shattered the continuous sound of gunfire and grenades into pieces. He turned in time to see the Pelican Alex has just boarded explode into shrapnel as the Banshee squadron that had just blown it up fired into the streets below, raining death down on marines and civilians alike. Veer blinked his eyes as sweat broke out onto his brow, the flames of the destroyed Pelican still flickering in his eyes. Alex... He needed to find his wife, and soon. People ran screaming past him as he ran towards his home to see it in flames, suffering a direct mortar shot. Bodies lay in the street, obviously caught off guard by the attack. Hadn't they heard the sirens? Maybe his wife hadn't even known that they were under attack... A tear streamed down Jim's face as he waded into the bodies. So much destruction... so much death... Kelly's body wasn't here, and neither was his son's. Thank God she wasn't here among the dead. But how many other lives were laying there snuffed out in the street by a single blast? Veer let another prayer for his wife and child's safety slip through his lips as he ran to the Pelican loading zone. Warthog's drove away from the pad, lift off about to occur as the mass of humanity around the launching Pelican cried in terror as their only hope flew away from the doomed colony. Kelly... she was there, nearest to the closing blast doors, bashing the metal with her free hand as she cradled their infant son with the other. LAAG fire erupted as the Warthogs that had just left from the loading zone formed a solid barricade in the narrow street Jim had just ran down, firing upon the Covenant who had broken through the lines. Grunts and Jackals let out death dries as the machine gunners mowed them down. Kelly turned to look at the gun shots and screams that seemed so dangerously close to see her husband pushing through the panicked crowds to get to her.
"Jim!!!"
"Kelly!!!" Jim embraced his wife and child to his chest in desperation and let out a cry of relief. He whispered into his wife's ear as the other's around him ran from the pad in fear.
"I'm so glad your alive. The Covenant, they came so quickly..."
"I know, I ran out of the housing complex as soon as I heard gunfire." Kelly teared up as she looked into her husbands eyes. "Something hit the complex as we were leaving and the debris..." she looked at the baby in her arms, it's body limp and crushed. "Zack..."
Jim looked at his dead son as his grieving wife wept in anguish. What had he done to deserve this? Was there some unspeakable crime against God he had committed to deserve such punishment?
"Kelly," Jim fought back his tears. "we need to leave."
The fire from the Warthogs had stopped and the patrol had moved on, fresh Covenant bodies laying on the concrete the only thing near life in view. People had abandoned the street in search of alternative salvation. Plasma explosions were rampant as the Wraiths advanced on the city. Kelly collapsed to the street as she wept over her dead child as Jim's radio told him that a final Pelican evac was touching down in the city's square.
"I'm so scared Jim."
Jim picked his wife and dead son up into his arms and cradled them close, his pistol still in hand. Kelly's dirtied brown hair fluttered in the wind as he looked into her blue eyes with strength, explosions ripping around them and Banshee screams coming from over head.
"We can make it. I'm here now. There's a military transport leaving a short way from here picking up the last survivors. We can make it."
Jim kissed his wife gently to reassure her and ran towards their hope, his broken family in tow. Darting down side streets full of debris and bodies, Jim found himself in the city square, a line of marines firing at the advancing Covenant, this being the last drop point held in the city. The chain gun fire from the sandbank explacements was near deafening as it cut down the advancing line of Jackals, cutting deep into the Grunts bringing up the rear of the line. Even so, the marines were outnumbered nearly 3 to 1 already and the Elites firing from behind the lines were untouched. Four Pelicans were loading up the surviving civilians and military personnel and a fifth was just landing. A Shadow barreled into the square unloading it's Elite passengers well past the front lines of the battle as the gunner in the back ripped into the declining marine lines and emplacements.
"Listen to me sweetie." Jim put his wife to the ground and readied his pistol, taking cover in the side street they had just run down and the wall of a nearby building.
"Run for that transport over there, the one just landing. I need you to run as fast as you can, alright? I'm going to distract those Covies from shooting at you while you're in the open. Do you understand?"
Kelly looked to her husband's face with fear and peered into the erupting gunfire in the square. The four Pelicans were lifting off, their bellies full of fleeing men and women and the fifth was touching down to the receive the final fighting squadron, who was faltering fast from the constant Covenant barrage. A few marines left their chain gun posts and ran towards the transport, firing into opposition as they went. A few made it but the majority fell to the plasma hissing though out the air. Kelly looked back into her husband's courageous face and nodded. They embraced and kissed once more before they ran into the open, Jim leading the way firing off into the Covenant Elite strike team attacking the marines as Kelly made a dash for the Pelican, her dead child in arm. Jim charged at the Elites, his only concern for his wife's safety. The alien nearest Jim rolled onto the ground dodging the soldier's pistol fire, turning his attention away from the other marines onto the kamikaze sniper charging towards him. The Elite fired his rifle off into Jim's side, burning a neat hole into his armor and piercing down into the skin. Jim went to yell out but bit his tongue as he dropped to the ground on one knee. Pointing his pistol into the black Elite's eyes, Jim fired off three rapid shots through the beasts shielding and into his face, killing him almost instantly. More Covenant transports funneled into the square, more Elites jumping off into the fray as the remaining marines around Jim made a final dash for the Pelican. Veer looked towards the transport to see his wife climbing aboard and pulled himself up to his feet giving out his last energy reserves to sprint to the transport. Plasma hissed and sizzled through the air by his ear, the smell of it burning the atmosphere around him bringing fear into his heart. He was certainly going to die here, every nerve in his body screamed out at him as if it had already happened. Sure enough, he felt the strong impact of a plasma rifle striking against his back and was brought to his knees one last time by a pursuing Elite. He turned his face to his attacker and was greeted by a claw strike across his neck. The crippled marine cried out in terror and slammed into the ground with a thud, the Elite cackling at the fallen man. The sound of an assault rife unloading a full clip into the alien droned out the hideous laughter as the Elite dropped dead over Jim's own body, his purple blood pouring out over Jim's shaking body, mingling in that brief moment with blood spilled on the ground from Jim's own wounds. A single marine pulled Jim's body from underneath the alien zealot's and shouldered him onto the transport, firing with his side arm as he ran onto the ship.
"Let's get out of here pilot!"
The marine yelled into his comm as he as he slammed the blast doors shut behind him, putting Jim down into the closest seat with his other arm.
"This is Corporal Max Meldon of Fire Team Tango! Drop point Delta Zebra is clear! We are out of here!"
Kelly ran to the semi-conscious Jim, helping him into a chair and strapping him in for the take off before seating herself next to him. Plasma beams impacted the door as the remaining members of Fire Team Tango sighed in relief as the Pelican precariously took off and quickly accelerated. Jim looked up to Kelly from his seat, her face fading into a dreamy haze as the explosions and gunfire of the battle dimmed into non existence...
Jim sat up in his bunk with a start, his internal clock waking him at 04:00. Cold sweat drenched his fatigues as he wiped his face, fingering habitually at the scar over his neck... Not just a mere nightmare, but the torments of the past brought back to life to haunt the man in his sleep. If only his life had been a dream, just one long horrible nightmare...
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