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Present Darkness, Chapter Two: Part I
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 28 November 2004, 1:34 AM
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Chapter Two
The Secrets Lie Beneath
0535 hours, November 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
6 Kilometers North of Drop Zone Mike X-Ray
Planet Red Dawn (Codename), Theta 1440+90 System
The smell of burning seeped through the air. The sound of shorted electrical circuits emitted slowly in the background; a faint siren weakly tried to convey its warning from a short distance away. The cool air began to slowly give way to the rising sun in the morning, wind pushed the trees gently back and forth as the high wispy clouds blended perfectly with the lightening blue sky. This place was not the hell everyone condemned it to in their minds, it was just a peaceful place plagued by war.
Lynn squinted his eyes as the sun broke through some trees and flashed onto his face. The peaceful early morning sounds lied to him about the impending death that swarmed on the planet, and the relaxing sun that began heating the surface of this planet distracted his mind from the enemy that was hunting them.
The peacefulness of this place belied a hidden danger that waited to consume them all.
His eyes rolled open, and he began to focus on the situation around him. He was securely strapped into the seat of the Pelican, but he noticed that everything felt upside down. Lynn tasted the metallic sense in his mouth and naturally spat out, but the blood that exited from him flew up instead of down. Did this planet have some sort of reversing gravitational field? He tried to come up with an explanation for it as he reached slowly over to the buckle release button.
His body ached with every movement, and his head throbbed from the abuse he had received after coming to this planet. He didn't know why blood had found its way into his mouth, but the taste didn't help him cope with the pain. The fact that gravity seemed to be backwards was also perplexing, but he couldn't think right now.
Lynn pulled the release buckled on his harness and fell to the roof of the interior compartment. He cursed loudly and rubbed his head, staring at the floor of the Pelican above him. This perplexing state confused him, and looked up at three unconscious Marines strapped, their loose ends dangling towards him. He looked over at the rear gunner, who was hanging by a safety harness towards the roof as well.
He struggled to his feet, holding his head and nearly falling over. He remembered them in the Pelican, getting hit by Covenant fire, and then crashing. He remembered being at the drop zone, but how long ago he couldn't tell; for all he knew he had been passed out for days.
The bright sun shone into the compartment from the open rear hatch. Lynn stumbled toward it, trying to brace himself with the walls to keep from falling over. He passed by the dangling body of the gunner and looked out into the terrain before him. Gravity wasn't backwards.
The Pelican was upside down.
He let go of the compartment walls and walked out onto the soft ground, looking up at the tall trees that swayed in the wind. The sun broke through the openings and made the area alive with colors; the sight was beautiful and peaceful, with no hint that this land had ever been touched by war. Small fern-like planets dotted the rocky area and ran up the steep hill before him. He looked around and noticed that he was standing on the slope of a hill, sweeping down into a small rocky valley.
The sound of a stream met his ears as he spotted it at the tight valley floor. Across the valley below him was another steep hill that rose into the sky, lightly covered with those tall trees. He couldn't see much of anything else, but the scene he could see was surreal; the quietness of this place helped soothe the pain the coursed through him.
But reality was not lost for long. Lynn looked back at the over-turned Pelican, a small plume of smoke rising up and being dispersed by the wind. The damage to the craft was obvious, and its precarious position on this hill slope seemed unstable. He felt the feeling of oblivion, common, he knew, with head injuries. He tried to clear his mind and think about the situation they were in.
Lynn's heart nearly jumped when he fully comprehended his memories. They were in a hostile area, infested with the Covenant that would be after them. He looked back inside the compartment of the Pelican at the unmoving bodies and moved off to re-enter the craft, still finding himself unstable and light headed.
He grabbed the gunner who was dangling by his safety harness and shook him; the Marine didn't respond. He reached up and hit the release buckle, trying to catch the men as he fell onto him. They both fell to the floor, and Lynn pushed the body off of him, then pulled the gunner out into the sunlight. He shakily checked the mans pulse, it was there.
He moved into the Pelican again and went up to Johnson and checked the pulse of the Marine. He repeated it for the other two unconscious ODSTs and found them all alive. He breathed a sigh of relief; they seemed alright. He walked towards the cockpit door, hearing the distorted sound of a malfunctioning siren behind it. He reached up and opened the handle of the upside-down door and forced it open.
Inside he saw the shattered cockpit glass thrown everywhere. The controls and instruments were broken, and the interior of the cockpit had large fragments of the armored glass stuck to it. Lynn looked at the two bodies of the pilots, strapped in and hanging upside down. He took and step in, stepping on buttons of the upper console, and looked around at the motionless pilot.
Lynn nearly jumped back in horror, seeing the pilots face ripped apart with those glass shards. Dark blood ran down the pilots face and dripped towards the roof of the cockpit. He turned around and found the copilot in the same state, noticing the blood pooling from these two men at his own feet. He turned and walked out of the cockpit, suppressing the urge to vomit. The images replayed through his mind as he felt the nausea sweep over him.
It was all too much. The concussion in his head, the weariness of his body, the grotesque images that were burned into his mind; all of it came to the surface. Lynn leaned over and let the stomach acid and food from his last meal exit from his mouth and spew over the interior of the Pelican's compartment. He grabbed the side walls to keep from falling over as his head felt light again; he stumbled outwards into the sun and fell over onto his back.
He stared up into the sky; the blue sky that continued to lighten in the early morning. His nerves were raw, but subdued by the nausea that kept him breathing harder then usual. Why was he still alive? Part of him just wanted to end the pain and sickness and flee this reality to another realm; somewhere that didn't have these same horrors, somewhere he could leave this hell.
Lynn closed his eyes, and let that black world sweep back over him.
The feeling of movement was obvious, and it broke him from this blackness. He heard the noises and grunts made from some alien being and could feel them moving around him. A deep noise, one he recognized as being from an Elite, emitted from nearby, and more movement could be sensed.
Lynn's mind was working surprisingly clear now, for no apparent reason. He tried to picture the situation he was in and slowly reached for his M6C holstered on his right leg. He had no clue how many there were, but hopefully it would be less then twelve shots. He could feel the sense of adrenaline coming over him once again as he silently and slowly slid the Magnum pistol out and firmly grasped onto it. He knew he chances of success were small, but those carnivorous Jackals would be sifting over his body sooner then later, and taking some of those Covenant out while he could seemed like the better choice.
He clicked off the weapons safety and opens his eyes.
He stared up into the beady eyes of a Grunt, who looked back at him. There was a second of dawning comprehension on the small ugly alien as it realized this once dead human was now reaching up and grabbing him. Lynn sent the grip of his pistol square into the Grunts mask with all his might and heard the crack. Cold methane began seeping out as the Grunt jumped back and began squealing, grasping at its own face.
Lynn rolled up and looked at the situation. Four Jackals roamed twenty meters ahead of him up the hill, their shields off. Five Grunts and a single Elite were walking around the Pelican, their weapons down. These Covenant weren't expecting any survivors.
He brought up his pistol with his right hand and sighted on one of the Grunts down the hill towards the front of the Pelican, while simultaneously reaching onto his Load Bearing Vest and grabbed a fragmentation grenade, releasing the pin in one smooth motion. A single round entered the skull of the Grunt before even the Elite had time to react as a grenade landed at the feet of the Jackals up the hill. Lynn grabbed the pistol with both hands and fired off another round into a second Grunt as the explosion thundered behind him and up the hill.
The second Grunt fell backwards as the Elite brought up its own Plasma rifle and the other three Grunts scattered in fear. Lynn stared down the sight of the Elite from twenty-meters away and fired off another round that hit the Elite square in the chest, knocking its aim off just as the tall alien fired. The plasma rounds shot just to his right and threw small rock fragments into the air, the heat very present. He rolled aside and got to his feet; trying to face a superior enemy while on his back was not a best idea. The Elite barely flinched from the second round of his M6C and fired off more at the ODST as he dove for cover, putting the rear of the Pelican between him and the Elite.
Lynn wished he had his rifle, and looked around for anything else that might worked. The weapons of the ODSTs still strapped inside the Pelican would be too hard to get off in the time he had, which left him with the weapon in his hand. He moved inside the compartment and squeezed against the wall to remain out of sight as the Elite ran furiously around the corner, trying to find the human that just escaped.
The Plasma rifle stuck out like a sore-thumb, and Lynn took the opportunity, he lunging out from inside the compartment and grabbing the weapon from the Elite. The larger alien, not expecting the attack, reacted by putting a well placed punch into Lynn's chest, but not before the Plasma Rifle left its grasp and fell to the ground. Lynn flew back several meters and landed on the rocky ground. He rolled it out and brought his pistol to bear, firing round after round into the Elite.
The shield around the alien deflected every shot as the Elite walked toward him, seemingly laughing at his attempt to kill it. Lynn pulled the trigger again but found a dissatisfying click; he was out. The Elite took another big step and stopped above him, looking down with hatred that was visible even though Lynn had never seen such a fierce warrior so close.
The fight was over, and both beings knew which was going to die. Lynn dropped his pistol and stared up at the Elite, who graciously took its time flexing back his arm for the last fatal blow. The last moment before his own death in time slowed to nearly a standstill as the Elite's mandibles opened wide; his short-lived life was ending how it did in his nightmares. But this time, he couldn't wake up.
He closed his eyes and waited for the blow. Had time slowed down that much? His persistent waiting for his own death seemed longer then it should have been. His heart was racing as he opened his eyes and found no Elite above him; he quickly lifted his head up and saw the large body of the being laying back-first before him, a large exit wound from its neck squirting purple blood that began running down through the dirt.
He rolled onto his feet and looked around. What had saved him? Movement caught his eye up the hill, and his saw two figures stand up. It was like they were bushes, a plant of some type. He narrowed his eyes and got a better view of the two beings standing forty meters up the hill, long black objects in their hands. Ghillie suits.
One sniper scanned the area around him while the other made hand motions. Friendly's.
Lynn almost shouted over at them, his heart-pounding from the near death experience. But something didn't seem right. The two snipers were extremely cautious, continually sweeping the area; and the hand-motions by the first sniper indicated for him to get low.
He slowly, but deliberately, reloaded his M6C and looked around them. It was silent, nothing again but the wind swaying the trees back and forth. The sound of the distant river at the tight valley below him was no longer comforting; the eerie natural silence of things didn't seem peaceful anymore. He kept a close eye on the area around him as the two snipers skillfully made their way to him, their long rifles kept up and at the ready.
The first sniper nodded to him, coming up closer then usual to speak. "My name is Staff Sergeant Raphael Keeton, ODST Force Recon. What's the situation here?"
Lynn followed the other man's low tone of voice, and quietly told him of the last things he remembered. "We got evac'd from a hot drop zone, but, as you can see, we didn't get very far. Both pilots are dead, and the rest are still unconscious."
"And you are?"
Had he already forgotten basic introductions? "Staff Sergeant Brendan Lynn, ODST Second Platoon."
The sniper nodded. "We've got to get your comrades up and going, then we got to move out. There's been some new complications."
Lynn looked quizzically at the other man; his face darkened with green and black face paint. "Complications?"
Keeton nodded, slinging his rifle and bringing out a M6C-SD pistol, its long silencer looking very intimidating.
"We're not alone."
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