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Prodigal Son Part 13 A
Posted By: Scott D
Date: 18 January 2005, 5:42 AM
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Part 13: Burning Man
The hanger doors slid open with mechanical precision driving the retracting motors, the shuttle A36 shown in the early morning light despite the haze of smoke billowing in the distance. Scott 079 was low on ammo, his assault rifle had thirty six rounds and one chambered, his pistol was out of ammo, he had dropped his sniper rifle in the path behind. "Go! Now!" he was barking orders through his grey and black armor, the olive green plating having been burned black with a chemical earlier in the night. Around him one hundred and fifty civilians and Marines surged into the flight bay.
"Check the entry points! Check them now now now!" Corporal Simmons was shouting over the pain of his arm wound where thirteen needler barbs had exploded, pulping his entire left bicep and fore arm, despite the pain he was jacked up on a combat stimulants and bio foam stopped the bleeding. The green corporal was keeping the unit tight, bolstered by the sight of the renegade Spartan II. His men spread out to secure the hanger, to make sure the shuttle hadn't been breeched.
"Will this thing get us off the ground? Who knows how to fly?" a grunt was shouting as the civilians poured into the large white craft. The Shuttle was large, made for ferrying a platoon and light vehicles between systems, Scott knew it would get them out of system, but it would be a blind jump, and where ever they went it would mean a risk of a slow death by starvation lost in an unknown part of the galaxy. For now it didn't matter to him, the burned black armor, the shattered shoulder, the dead and dying he had passed this day hung in his memory.
Scott turned and fired as his motion sensor flared, four grunts were pouring in with three jackals behind them. He pitched a grenade their way as the assault rifle sprayed their faces, depleted uranium shells caught the first three grunts in their masks and methane lines causing the diminutive aliens to pop in a blue fire ball. The jackals hid themselves behind their shield projectors, the blue shimmering energy sparking with every bullet deflected. The sudden bass of the grenade's explosion caught them off guard, although two meters ahead of them the spray of debris knocked them backwards, bludgeoning one of them about the head. Scott was already charging forward with a combat knife in one hand and his assault rifle leveled at the remaining grunt as the jackal's beaked face cracked down on the pavement.
Scott's comm. link opened up with the pained voice of Corporal Simmons "we've got an engineer here, he's firing up the engines but there's no way he can fly this thing! Do you know how to get this goddamned thing off the ground or not?" He had buried his knife into the head of the remaining jackal, with the other one dead under his heal before he responded. "Get those burners hot Corporal!"
The marines were pouring back from the hanger's entry ways to the shuttle as they saw the Spartan toss the grunt thirty meters in the air, slamming into the pavement with such force that its methane tank burst sending the reeling alien flying about on the ground.
Kyoko watched, muted from her shock, outside the view screen of the cockpit there was the massive black and grey form of her rescuer, of their hero. He was lethal amongst his enemies, moving fast and sure, every shot had a purpose. His armor was stained purple and iridescent blue on his boots, his hand a dull orange from his initial combat in the bunker.
Their run to the shuttle hanger had put her in this shock, the fire fights, the aliens, and the insanity of it all. Three marines had died, but not a single civilian had fallen, she had lost track of how many attacked them and how many times, the worst had been the screaming shrill of Covenant jets bearing down on them, being dive bombed with horrid inhuman screams shaking her very soul. But still the black armored soldier had been there he had saved her. He knew her name, and he held her closely, he had told her she would survive. God she was terrified, everything about this day was a nightmare.
The black armored soldier was a Spartan, that much she knew, she had met him before but forgotten his name, she just new the 079 on his shoulder pad, burned off by the plasma fire and the crushing boot of the massive blue armored behemoth he had fought to get to them in that bunker. She saw now the silver and gold armored aliens rushing at him, blue plasma fire racing in impossible speeds towards him.
"Oh my god! He doesn't see them!" Kyoko screamed her voice higher than normal.
"But we do!" Engineer Jorge shouted booting up the weapons control, on a screen to his left a blue wire frame layout of the shuttle appeared, and flashing in red was the forward anti-missile turret.
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