Hopestar : Cp2 pt2 : Fools and Fear
Posted By: sam_fisha<sam_fisha@yahoo.com>
Date: 5 February 2005, 4:02 AM
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There are fools with wit, but never any with judgment.
-La Rochefougauld
"Corporal, I'm sending another squad down there. Can you clarify what noise you heard?" Ensign Houghton spoke into her mic as she doodled on a pad of paper on her desk. After a few seconds of waiting she tried again. "Corporal, can you hear me?" She sighed and leaned back in her chair. Dang Marines She thought as she stretched her sore arms and glanced back at her monitor. She settled back into her chair and spoke into the mic again. "Corporal, answer me."
"Squad twelve, they aren't responding." She spoke into her mic, informing the reinforcements she had sent to squad one. She waited for recognition but received none. "Squad twelve, do you read." Once again there was no response.
She stood from her chair and walked past the rows of other coordinators to the office at the end of the room. Normally she would have been happy to have a chance to stretch her legs and get a break from her tedious duties but this time two squads weren't responding.
She reached the desk of the head of department, Mr. Kuroki, a short balding man of Chinese decent who seemed to take some kind of offence to anything she said. "Mr. Kuroki..." She said, waiting impatiently as he slowly swiveled around in his overly large chair.
"Yes." He responded in his slow monotone voice.
"Both squads one and twelve aren't responding, I think there might be Covenant onboard.
Mr. Kuroki mulled over this for a few minutes, leaving Houghton standing in the hallway. If I warn the command I have to do paperwork on why, if I send another squad I'm okay! Mr. Kuroki thought selfishly as he rubbed his fat chin. "Send another squad." He said as he turned back to his computer.
Houghton heaved a sigh and turned to walk back to her desk.
The newly constructed Flood hive brimmed with dead bodies. The Humans had foolishly continued to send unaware food into their traps. Even now twelve new bodies were being added to their new army. Globs of stored bio matter adhered to the wall and guaranteed the soldiers food throughout their campaign.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
-Benjamin Franklin
Doctor Hutu examined the strange Marine sitting on the examination table, twitching and looking around at the room. Hutu was behind a two way mirror, watching dozens of bio scanners intently.
His heart rate was almost twice the resting rate and his blood pressure was through the roof. The doctor reached over to a cabinet and removed a small jar containing dozens of small white pills. These would lower the patients heart rate and blood pressure, then he could start the internal scans.
He walked through the door into the examining room where the Marine sat. His head whipped around to face the Doctor as he entered the room. The movement was so fast and violent it scared him a little. The Marines eyes watched him intently, unmoving, always staring at him blankly.
Hutu extended a flat hand holding two pills in it. "I need you to swallow these." He said, smiling politely as the Marine reached to grab them. His hand was an inch from recovering the pills when it suddenly jerked, flying at the doctor and colliding with his face. He fell to the ground, unconscious. The flood infested Marine stood over him, watching the Human, then leaned down to him.
Hillers stood next to the other civilians in his block, standing silently, listening to the tiny scratching and scrambling sound the echoed through the large room. The Marine guards ran around, trying to calm the frightened people. Hillers slowly walked to his new found friend, a man named Karl. "Here." He said as he discretely handed him his extra pistol. Karl nodded and his it under his shirt. Then they continued to stand, listening to the ominous scratching and clanking created by the unseen horrors.
The rest of the civilians looked around the room, searching for the source of the noise. One person bolted for the door only to be restrained by the guarding Marines.
"Remain calm." The Marines yelled as they forced the runner to the ground.
"Sir, two more patrols aren't responding, and there's still no word from our people on the Covenant ship." Ensign Srew said as he nervousley watched several screens in front of him.
The Captain glanced around at his crew, working bussily on dozens of computors, their orange jump suits standing out from the grey walls of the warship. He calmly smoothed out his own grey uniform and brushed some of his hair aside. "Prepare for emergency jump." He said, breaking the monotonous sound of typing that filled the bridge. "All ships." He finished, gauging the reactions of his crew. All of them looked at eachother, dumbstruck by the sudden decision.
"Sir, we still have men on that ship, if we leave they-" Ensign Srew was abruptly interupted by the Captain. "And I have ten thousand people on this ship! If we stay more Covenant might get onboard, I'm not risking thousands of lives for a few M.I.A. Marines!" The Captain yelled, losing his usual calm and suprising the bridge crew with the sudden outburst.
What happened to leave no man behind? Srew thought as he sent the command to the other ships.
Kells stood looking down at the Flood he had finally managed to kill. I can't get to the ship on my own. He thought as he removed his knife from the slain monstrousity. They'll come, they'll save me. He reassured himself. He sat on the raised platform and slowly curled into a tight ball, all of his training and conditioning forgotten as he slowly cracked, like a candle light flickering before it dies. They'll come...
The needs of the many...
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