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Present Darkness, Chapter One: Part I
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 18 November 2004, 4:34 AM
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Chapter One
Fate?
0510 hours, November 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Drop Zone Mike X-Ray
Planet Red Dawn (Codename), Theta 1440+90 System
The numbing blackness was ironically a welcoming feeling. Not only was the world of a few seconds ago gone, along with all the horrors found in it, but it had a careless feel to it that provided a timely offset to the pain that was to come. While it was obviously known that this black world led to sustained pain after it lifted and the real world returned, the moments spend inside this darkness seemed to always be a better choice.
The rumble and shouting of the real world began seeping through the invisible walls of this world where the only existence were that of memories. The screaming, the low rumbles that shook the ground, the persistent shooting; all of it began making its way through unconsciousness that was able to take all the pain away, all the fear.
All the atrocities burned into the mind.
While the distant memories flashed through this world at first, the more recent ones began dominating as the black began wearing out. The images of explosions were overlaid with the sounds of screaming, followed by the emotion of fear. The distant beating of the heart that was at first normal began speeding up, resounding louder and louder in this black world. The dull blackness began fading as the images passed, but the screaming was still getting louder.
And the was fear getting stronger.
Staff Sergeant Brendan Lynn opened his eyes. His vision began to clear from its blurry state, revealing a deep blue sky far above him. The surroundings began coming into his peripheral sight, and a figure above him began to sharpen. He knew he was staring back into the world he really existed in, despite the careless sense that called for him just to close his eyes and go back to the black world where nothing mattered, but the figure kneeling down over him wouldn't let him go, and this real world was finally becoming what it is. Reality.
"...You're looking back at me so I know you're not dead yet."
Lynn willed his hand to touch his forehead as the splitting pain washed over him. The inevitable aftermath never seemed to be really bad until you we're experiencing it; the darkness of the numbing world he just awoken from would not return now, and as his rational mind started to become clear, he wouldn't want to go back. The dangers of this reality could put him there permanently.
The man above him looked up and brought his weapon to bear, firing several shots at an unseen foe out of his sight. The loud explosions of the rounds firing out of the muzzle cut into his throbbing head, bring his awareness level back up, and with that, the memories of a few minutes ago was well.
Brendan tightened the grip of his right hand, and with satisfaction, felt the cold hard rifle grip in it. One thing he would never lose was the one instrument he was given to get his task accomplished, but also to stay alive. To lose this would no doubt be the end of what was already looking as a short life.
He rolled onto his stomach, then rose to a knee, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his head that seemed to cause every muscle in his body to ache. He brought his rifle up to his shoulder, as his training dictated, and tried to scan the area around him. He remembered the situation before an explosion sent him face first into the ground, and it wasn't good.
Bad, he thought as he looked around, was an understatement. What had started as a silent drop into the rocky forest of this planet, turned quickly into a firefight that threw everything they hoped to accomplish out the window. Their complicated orders of less then thirty minutes ago were now meaningless; survival was the priority in every mind at this drop zone.
"Lynn! Look alive!"
His mind absorbed all this information much too slowly. His usual reaction and comprehension time was now a distant goal in wake of his dominating head pain. He knew that in this type of condition he wouldn't last a minute fighting against this well trained foe, but he had little choice to leave it. It was either buck up and fight, or prepare to join the thousands of others that had the same difficulties on the field of battle.
Lynn dropped down onto his stomach and low crawled to a nearby rock. Enemy plasma fire crisscrossed overhead, and explosions rang out in what seemed like every direction. He looked over the large rock into the forest that sloped down to a valley. There were many points of movement
"Enemy contact!" Lynn yelled, his own voice sounding muffled in his head. He was about to give a direction when the dawning realization of the malfunction of his Heads-Up Display washed over him. The green eyepiece that projected the information into his vision clearly read off damage codes. He reached up to his helmet and turned it off, then pushed the eyepiece off to the side, giving him full vision.
Movement sparked to his left, and he quickly brought his rifle to bear, firing four shots into the target that was approaching from under fifty meters away. The small figure let out a scream for a split second before the methane tube extending from its mouth to back exploded.
Plasma fire impacted the other side of the rock, forcing him to duck down. The heat was faintly felt through the rock as the Covenant zeroed in on his position after spotting the muzzle flashes. Lynn cursed loudly and looked behind him to the center of the drop zone.
Aside from the scattered drop-capsules, the scene was nothing different. Bodies of his comrades lay on the ground, and explosion craters dotted the area. They had somehow dropped into a very bad location, and every ODST began receiving fire even before they hit the ground. Was he the last one left?
"Bravo!" Lynn yelled out above the plasma fire.
An explosion rang out just behind him, and fragments flew every direction. He turned around and leaned around the rock, spotting two Grunts making their way towards him through the sparse foliage. He fired several shots into the first, sending it back-first into the ground, while the second ran off behind some trees. Plasma fire erupted again at him from several areas in the forest, forcing him to cover again. He turned around and looked back at the drop zone; somebody had to have survived.
"Bravo!" He yelled again.
Muzzle flashes flashed from behind another rock into the forest, and an array of Covenant return fire pounded down on that position.
"Two, pinned!"
"Three, firing!"
Lynn let out a breath of relief. His entire platoon of thirty-six members had dropped at this location, and he wasn't sure how many of them were still alive, but being Fire Team Bravo leader, he was directly responsible for his own team, of which at least two were alive.
Private First Class Richard Johnson, third member of Fire Team Bravo, leaned out and fired from behind his rock twenty meters away. The Marine was all business, and rarely socialized when they weren't facing the Covenant, but in return was dead steady under fire. PFC Daniel Wilson reloaded his rifle next to Johnson, stumbling with the clip as plasma rounds shot overhead.
Lynn nearly jumped when another figure crashed down next to him. He looked over at the man crouching behind the same rock as stray plasma shots sizzled through the air over them; it was Fire Team Alpha's gunner. Lynn looked at the subdued nametape: Westfield.
"Where's your team?" Lynn asked to the shorter man. While he seemed smaller then most, Westfield looked apparently strong, and had no trouble hefting the large M271B Suppressive Fire Weapon, SFW, but more affectionately called a machine-gun.
"No clue, Sergeant." His voice was steady, despite the hard breathing. "It's been almost five mikes since I saw the last one from my team."
Their drop zone was not very large, and last he knew, the entire platoon had made it within the zone, which was only fifty meters in diameter. If they weren't responding over the radio or by verbal communication, they were probably lying face down in the dirt, moving on to a better place. Lynn looked back to where Johnson and Wilson were; they were taking heavy fire from the forest.
"Get that two-seventy-one mounted and firing, I got your back." The other ODST nodded and went prone, extending the bipods connected to the end of the massive weapon. The weapon could fire either armor-piercing rounds or high-explosive, either way, though, it would tear through the forest like a knife.
Lynn leaned back around the rock as the M271 exploded in a riot of noise as it fired rounds into the forest where the Covenant were firing from. He spotted a Jackal moving up on them, and put its exposed head in his sights. Two rounds ended the creature's miserable life, sending a spray of blood onto the foliage behind it.
Another Jackal exposed itself from behind a tree, firing wildly at his position. Lynn resisted the urge to duck and sighted his rifle on that threat, letting three rounds send it back to the ground. Plasma rounds skimmed over his head, instantly heating up the air around him and scorching the top of his helmet. Two grunts ran across his field of view, and he fired several bursts at them, but they disappeared before he could confirm a hit. Plasma fire immediately shifted from Johnson and Wilson's location onto theirs, forcing him back into cover. Westfield turned and sent rounds back at the unseen enemies, ending the plasma fire.
"There's got to be over fifty of them out there," Lynn said, noticing that more plasma fire rained down on them from a different location. "We either need to get some air support here, or take the fight to them."
Westfield acknowledged his statement with a grunt, then held down the weapons recoil as he fired another long burst into the forest. "Who has the LRISC?"
"Someone in Fire Team Charlie," Lynn responded, sighting a Grunt and firing several rounds at the creature as it tried to make it to the cover of another tree.
"Charlie's all KIA. They were the first to go." The M271 fired off again.
Lynn held his forehead as the continuous fire from the loud weapon brought back his daunting head pain. He tried to focus again on what needed to happen; it was that or concede to failure, and he couldn't let down any of his comrades still fighting to stay alive. "Is anyone else alive besides the four of us?"
Westfield stopped firing and looked up at him, his face muddy and his eyes burning with adrenaline. "Your guess is as good as mine."
The Covenant were good; they had tactics nailed down, and for some unknown reason, a high moral to kill them that was driven by their religion. They were dangerous, and required teamwork and intuitive adaptation to beat, but were they actually capable of ripping through a Marine, and not only Marine, but an ODST Platoon, in less then ten minutes?
Or maybe they had dropped in the worst place imaginable.
Lynn clenched his jaw as another Grunt fell victim to his fire. They were dealt a bad hand, but so far, it hadn't been bad enough to kill them all. The fight wasn't over yet, and they were still breathing, which meant that they would make this one living hell for the Covenant as long as they had ammunition.
"Cover me, I'm making a run for the LRISC." Lynn said, slapping a new clip in his rifle.
Westfield wiped his face and looked up at him. "Are you crazy? You'll get mowed down out there; there's no cover!"
He had survived this long, maybe his luck would hold out. "Just keep them busy for me." He pulled the charging level on the rifle and took in one deep breathe.
Westfield pulled the trigger and sent a volley of rounds into the forest as Lynn stood up into a crouch run. Plasma fire erupted from the forest and impacted around him as he moved inward towards the center of the drop zone, looking for the LRISC pack on the bodies laying in the rocky dirt. He kept moving, ducking behind what cover he could find, trying to stay one step ahead of the Covenant fire. There were no trees in the drop zone, for obvious reasons, and therefore, little cover either. The only thing that could give him adequate cover were the large rocks that dotted the area.
The sounds of the M271 and the rifles from his own team responded to the Covenant fire, but he could still see and feel the warmth of the plasma impacting around him. Dirt flew up and the smell of heat filled the air. He frantically looked for the radio pack on the bodies he came across, while also trying to avoid that one fatal hit that could end it.
"Loading!" Westfield called form behind.
Lynn cursed as the only real weapon present capable of giving him some cover fire ceased to continue. Plasma fire erupted once again from the forest, all of it seemingly concentrated at him.
He dove for cover behind a large rock, and slid to a muddy halt up against it, the plasma fire instantly warmed up the rock until it was too hot to touch. Lynn made himself the smallest target as possible and lay prone, shielding his eyes from the hot rocks and debris that flew around him. The fear of death was greatly overshadowed by the adrenaline pumping though him. He looked around, careful to keep his head down, as the Covenant kept their persistent will to kill on him.
There. Lynn spotted the black box-like radio on the back of a body less then ten meters away. That radio was the only thing that could save them out of this situation; it was worth risking his life for.
"Two-seventy-one, up!" The thunderous fire began again from somewhere behind him as Westfield began putting rounds on the Covenant positions in the forest surrounding them. The plasma fire dramatically dropped; this was his chance.
Lynn jumped up and ran for the body, still feeling the plasma fire chasing him. He dove for the body and grabbed the radio mid-flight, ripping it off the Marine's back as he followed through with a roll. He got back to his feet and ran to another rock just meters away, zigzagging and shielding his face as plasma fire ripped up the ground around him. He dropped and rolled behind it, looking up into the sky and seeing plasma rounds fly over.
This was it. In his hands was what may be the only savior of this situation, the only way out of a corner where the enemy controlled every way out. He flicked the on switch and watched it warm-up to life, then grabbed the handset and depressed the button.
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