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Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Two: Part I
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 24 May 2004, 3:46 AM
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___________________________________________________________
Chapter Two: Reading Between the Lines
0602, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone
Lieutenant Kren slowly peered around the corner of a large tree. The creature they had detected just minutes before had not moved, but stayed in the same spot, remaining deathly quiet and ready, for something.
He peered through the thick rain and spotted something barely moving through the brush no more than 10 meters away. It wore no type of armor or clothing, and had no weapon in its hand. It was not looking directly at Kren, but it obviously knew something was close.
Kren had never seen anything like it before. It was huge, with a coat of fur all over and large muscular arms and legs. It had a mouth the size of a humans head and the intimating look of an Elite, yet the creature looked nothing like any Covenant he had ever encountered. Maybe it wasn't part of the Covenant....
Kren gave some quick hand signals to Sergeant McCollum and Fire Team Alpha, five men in the fire team plus the Sergeant, who were crouching behind another tree a few meters away. They nodded and slowly raised their rifles at the creature, but withheld fire. Kren turned around and the motioned for Fire Team Bravo to move up, who consisted of five more ODST Marines. They skillfully and silently moved up to a fallen over tree and peered over it, aiming their M7A1's at the creature.
Kren peered through his 4x Optical Scope on the rifle and got a closer look at the creature which was already close. It was fully alert, but still did not move; its body slightly heaving up and down from the creature's steady breathing. Whatever this thing was, it was probably native to the area, since it seemed to know the priorities of stealth in the jungle. If the Marines had not had their sensors and optics, this thing could have easily taken them all out.
Crack!
Kren heard the noise of a stick break under the foot of one of the Marines from Fire Team Bravo. The noise, while actually relatively quiet, seemed to echo around them as the bushes where the creature waited suddenly moved. Kren thumbed off the safety on the rifle and tried regain a visual location of the creature.
"Sir! Target moving left, target moving left!" Came Smather's voice through the comm. link.
The Marines immediately check their sixes and flanks, just as they were trained to. The sound of the rain drowned out any movement, as the rifles in the hands of the Marines' scanned back and forth. Splashing was heard behind Kren, and he spun to face it.
Damnit.
The creature, at least ten feet tall, was squarely facing Kren as the long thick hairs on its back went straight up. Its black eyes eyed the Marine up and down as its jaws clenched. Kren blinked.
The powerful force of an object hitting Kren was the first thing he felt as re opened his eyes. In the split second the creature had tackled the lieutenant from almost five meters away.
Kren flew back as the sound of silenced M7A1's filled the air around them. He felt the pain hit him as he fell back first into the six-inch deep muddy ground. The force however, carried him even further through the mud into the vegetation as the sound of muffled shots filled the air, barely audible above the hard rain.
"...Fire, fire, fire!" Came a voice through the comm. link.
"Target moving north! He's coming back around!"
"Check your six, Leven's!"
"Target approaching, suppressive fire...!"
The comm. link was alive with reports from the Marines as Kren clenched his fists, still lying in the mud. Then he realized his rifle was not in them. He felt around, ignoring the numbing pain in his chest as he tried to find the rifle. It couldn't have gone far.
He blinked several times as his Heads-up-Display reset, obviously the small computer had gotten knocked offline from the blow. If it wasn't for his Mark IAC body armor, he would probably be dead from the forceful hit.
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Sergeant McCollum set his rifle to three round burst as he tried to track the target moving around them. It was so fast that the shots from the Marines scattered around the area seemed to miss. Or maybe they were hitting it, but the creature failed take any damage...
He heard something behind him, and spun around quickly.
_______________________________________________________
Kren quickly drew his M6D pistol from the holster and leveled it on the target, now 3 meters in the air and coming down for an attack on Sergeant McCollum. With the safety already off and a round in the chamber, he squeezed the trigger. The first round impacted the creature in its neck, and the following three rounds went directly into its chest. The high-explosive rounds detonated on impact, sending a torrent of blood and guts as the creature came down for a hard landing in front of the McCollum, who unleashed a fully automatic rifle at the creature from one meter away.
The creature, while obviously wounded, was not dead. As the last rounds of McCollum's clip ripped through its body, it rose up to its fill height as the blood mixed with the mud below. Kren pulled the trigger, only to hear a dissatisfying click. He was empty.
As Kren reached for another clip, the five Marines of Fire Team Alpha moved on past him, their rifles steadily aimed at the creature, firing short, controlled bursts. The rounds impacted on the creature, bringing a low, deep, growl from it as puffs of blood came off its body as the 45. Caliber Armor Piercing Rounds ripped through its body.
The creature slumped forward and landed next to McCollum, who back pedaled slowly away as Fire Team Bravo emerged, surrounding it from behind.
Kren finished the three-second process of reloaded his pistol, then, with it still aimed at the creature, moved slowly towards it. The ten Marines and Sergeant McCollum had their weapons shoulder on it as the large creature twitched, its head in the ground with black blood filling the muddy water around it.
"What the hell was that?" Came a loud whisper from Sergeant Brooks, Fire Team Bravo leader.
The Marines stood their in silence as the rain poured down around them. Whatever had attacked them was a very formidable foe, possessing great stretch and surprising speed. Kren leaned forward for a closer look; the only rounds that hat hit the creature were the ones of his pistol, McCollum's rifle, and then that of Fire Team Alpha's. The whole time this thing was moving not a single projective hit it.
"At least it's not invincible," Private Smathers remarked, giving the limp body a forceful kick to make sure it was dead.
Kren holstered the weapon as the rifles from the Marines around him slowly went down. The ordeal had salted about sixty seconds, but it felt like an hour. The pain in his chest throbbed as he looked around at the vegetation. This was this creatures home, and there were probably more of them. Many more.
"Security circle," McCollum quickly ordered. The Marines fanned out and set up a perimeter. "Smathers, keep an eye on that motion sensor."
"Yes, sergeant." Came a confident reply.
Kren turned around and spotted his rifle in the mud a few meters away. He walked over and picked it up, then pulled the bolt back, ejecting the current round a bringing another one up. It functioned completely normal, even though being, flooded with water.
The M7A1 was a new edition rifle that was finishing its final stages of field-testing. The rifle packed a much heavier punch then the standard issue MA5B, and was much more versatile. The rifle chambered a .45 armor piercing round, but at the cost of having only a clip size of 30 rounds. The rifle also had special operations modifications that could be added to make the weapon even more effective. Such modifications were all installed on the Marines' weapons. The one Kren found most useful was the addition of a silencer. Although it didn't eliminate the sound of the gun firing, as did guns with silencers and sub-sonic rounds, it effectively cut the sound in half, thus retaining full firepower at the off set of a slightly louder gun. However, in this weather, the sound would not travel far at all. A greatly useful ability of the gun was being able to operate after being under water, thus making it a prime choice for special operations where infiltration through water was mandatory.
The M7A1 had been battle tested against Elites, and in some cases the first shot penetrated the shield. In most cases, however, it took maybe two to five shots. Not a bad improvement though, considering the stories he had heard of Marines firing full clips of the MA5B rifle at an Elite, and still failed to kill it.
Kren motioned for Fire Team Alpha and Bravo to move up and form a tactical wedge, the same formation they had been in before the encounter; one on his left and right flank. He pulled out a water-proof laminated copy of a topographical map and looked at it for a second. He found his bearings and oriented the Squad.
"Sergeant McCollum, let's get moving." He ordered through the comm. link. The sergeant nodded and moved up ahead of the group and took point. Formerly in Force Recon, the sergeant was a skillful shot and scout, and actually preferred leading point. He began his crouch walk through the brush and pushed away the vegetation as he moved through it. Alpha and Bravo began moving along as well as Lieutenant Kren walked five paces behind McCollum.
The scientists back at Reach would love to see the HUD Camera feed of the creature from all of his Marines, but that would have to wait. Right now, they were stuck thousands of light years away on what was quickly become a green hell.
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