Never mind him! Mind them!
Posted By: Reiyou<tristan98006@yahoo.com>
Date: 6 May 2004, 1:56 AM
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4679 26th Omega P.H.F
93,716 years before Human Recorded History
1643 military standard time
Two weeks later.
Auren was relocated after what had happened at the lab. He was now back to being a front-liner. He was in a fight with another sentient race that didn't like the Forerunners meddling in their affairs.
A glowing needle shard whizzed by Auren's head. (These are the needles every one knows and loves, except wayyy faster.) Auren personally had seen holes blasted in combat armor much like a carbine does. If 8 or more hit you, it was generally decided that you were screwed, as the victim would be blasted to hell in a pink fiery cloud. The race themselves looked like Elites but were larger and much tougher as they relied on absolutely no armor. They were hard to hit as well. Auren was hiding behind a rock and looked over the edge. He saw three of the Sartanions move back and forth among the trees. One of them spotted him- roared something to his comrades and Auren ducked his head down as needles whizzed by, and splintering the trees and plants.
"God Damn it! I need some back up! I've got three of the bastards pinning me." Auren barked into his comm.
"Roger, paint them for me will ya?" His heavy support grunt reported.
"Forget paint! They're about 87 meters core ward of my position. They don't know where you—" Auren was cut off by a needle bouncing off a tree and drove straight to him. He barely moved his head out of the way when it his comm. Unit got hit by the shard.
"Fuck." He said to no one in particular. He poked his head over the edge and heard one of them laugh. Auren aimed with the carbine and snapped a burst. The Sartanion was blasted into pieces as the HEAP rounds tore into its unprotected body. He ducked back down as a response hail of needles came down on him. He heard the scream of some mortar go over head and explode 87 meters away from him. One of the Sartanion's eyes landed in his lap. He heard someone approach with a heavy tread. Auren quickly brushed the eye off and stood up.
The figure was in ZAL power armor and the gold pauldrons marked him as a general.
"Sir! Sector secure, finally, sir!" Auren said. The general nodded.
"Good, move your artillery squad up. The enemy has retreated, we found where they are hiding and your team has indirect attack capabilities. We will need them within the hour.
"Sir! Yes sir!" Auren replied. He took out a small portable comm unit,"Squad move it up! The ZAL need our help as usual so move it up!" His orders were followed by acknowledgements when he moved up and along side the general. The general looked at him.
"I don't need you guarding me. You'd get in the way and then I'd have to watch for both of us." He said and crunched through the brush. Auren shrugged and advanced. He heard someone in exoskeleton armor, It was his artillery expert and the suit was to help him with two heavy mortar launchers on its shoulders.
"Sir! Where should I set-up shop?" He asked.
"Don't know, you might want to get your SMG out." Auren said. The general halted and looked around. Auren restlessly looked back at his squad moving up in a delta formation. The general was obviously focusing on his tactical HUD when 4 of the aliens slithered through the brush.
"Contact! Over there!" Auren shouted and whipped up his carbine. The aliens were alarmed at how they were easily detected and opened fire on his squad. A few hits were scored on the Zurians and they counter-attacked, maiming one and killing the others. Someone shot the survivor in the head.
The general snapped back into reality. "What the hell?" he asked when he saw the dead bodies.
"Thank you sir!" Auren said and slinked through the brush, checking for other enemies in the area.
"Nothing moving!" He reported. He checked the area one last time. He returned to his squad's position when a massive contact appeared on the Long Range motion tracker.
"Any idea on what the hell that is?" Someone asked. The general returned, he was flanked by four of his soldiers. They spread out wordlessly. The general also activated his suits orbital comm unit. Auren couldn't pick out the words but the general was listless. He then started pacing. Auren was unnerved by his commander and then he saw the first shape. At first he didn't recognize it but a burst of memory blasted through his brain. He screamed and raised the carbine and blasted away at the brush. Everyone snapped up and looked at Auren and where he fired. The general was pissed.
"Corporal! What the hell do you think you were doing!" The general scolded him. Auren was still in panic mode when his combat training hacked its way through the mode.
"Sir! I thought I saw something - I don't know what it was..." He trailed off.
"Son, when we get back to the fleet, I'm ordering a psych analysis. You're obviously not fit for combat if you're having hallucinations! Lock down your carbine and give it to me." The general said. Auren complied and thought sadistically I think you're going to die. He had no idea where the thought came from. The general slotted the carbine on the storage racks on the backpack of his armor.
Then Auren got his confirmation on what the massive contact was. A huge horde numbering of a few hundred combat forms swarmed his squad's position.
"OH SHIT!" Auren yelled "SCATTER! REGROUP AT THE TAILIS RIDGE!" Auren scrambled to the general, ripped his carbine off and unlocked it. He took aim.
The flood didn't like someone spoiling their approach and the forms with weapons fired upon the 14 Zurians. The general unholstered two pistols and his body guards all got shotguns out. His squad scrambled as ordered.
"Corporal! Stay and fight damnit!" The general snarled on the comm net.
"Fuck no! We can't fight them here! If we can get to the ridge, we may be able to hold them off from there!" He replied and dashed through the wooded area. Sartanions saw a flittering shadow here or there as Auren eventually got to his top speed, as fast as the not even created human race could even hope to achieve, even with augmentations and life-long training. Eventually he reached Tailis Ridge. He heard other Zurians haul their ass to where he ordered them. The flood knew about this ridge in some form or another. Auren wasted them with concentrated carbine fire, each disintegrating as the High-Explosive-Armor-Piercing rounds exploded while burying themselves deep into chest cavities, limbs and heads. Auren's rifle ran dry on ammo as the last flood disappeared into a firestorm. Auren ejected the clip and slammed another in. The ammo counter reset itself back to 250. He heard more flood moving through the forest and realized the area was slithering with flood.
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