Earth's Destruction Chapter 3: Glassed
Posted By: Sentinel<bertuccismith211@aol.com>
Date: 6 December 2003, 6:27 AM
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It has begun, and they do not know it. Yet the burning heat of plasma has struck this world like so many others ot there. It barely remains. All that is left is one city. One city with all that is left of humanity, one city that we now call home.
Their fleet demolished our forces into dust. Their fleet "glassed many human colonies. They made the human race classified as "endangered" after more than one hundred years of war.
Only a handful of ships escaped, each carrying civilians and soldiers alike. Others that remain are the SPARTAN IVs. But there are not enough left to fight the enemy at full force.
They had managed to escape by using something several Spartan II's found and recovered on Reach, but was destroyed. There was another...
The Covenant have been whiping out every force we had. The Inner Colonies were gone. All that was left was Earth. They attacked frequently until we lost almost everything. This time they got lucky. The date is June 9, 2625. And the Armageddon has begun...
* * * * * * *
Jack threw every grenade he could find at the appraching Covenant forces. Grunts with plasma grenades ran back to their friends screaming, "Get it off! Get it off!", or just plain screaming as they took them all to the fiery depths of hell. The grenades bounced off Jackals' shields and flew straight up. They then latched onto the unsuspecting Jackal's face. Elites were a different story. They usually dodged the glowing blue spheres. Jack's only hope of taking them out was with the Grunts. Jack really wasn't searching for a target, he just threw rapidly at anything that moved. Some grenades missed, but the rest hit.
"This is what you get for trying to kill us off without a reason!" he screamed as a plasma grenade attached to something he couldn't see. After the grenade detonated, however, he saw that it was a camouflaged Elite.
A voice came through his helmet speakers. "This is Sergeant Ryan Tompson. If anyone can hear this, please respond. Over."
Jack keyed his mike. "This is Corporal Jack O'Conner, I read you loud and clear. Over."
Then a bunch of voices came over the frequency at the same time. "Fall back!", "The enemy has us surrounded!"
Then finally, the Sergeant's voice came through. "Fall back to this position." A small circular NAV pointer appeared on his transparent eyescreen. "This is where the pelican will pick us up. Get there ASAP. Over and out."
"No problem." Jack finished killing the rest of the Covenant near him with nice grenade throwing, and finally could rest. He leaned against an overturned LRV and spotted one of ONI's latest projects. The SM8B assault rifle.
ONI reverse-engineered the Covenant's plasma batteries that they used in plasma pistols and rifles. But this was more like a work of art, with powerful destructive capabilities. It was an assault rifle, sniper rile, grenade launcher, and a Covenant shade all in one. Insted of using human bullets, however, SM8B's used plasma rounds. The battery that the SM8B depended on was more like an ammo clip, or a double A battery, but with more power. The batteries held at least five hundred plasma rounds each. There was only fifty ever made.
Jack couldn't belive what he was staring at. He quickly picked it up and activated it. He picked up five more of the compact plasma batteries lying carelessly on the burnt street. He started running.
"Corporal O'Conner. Do you copy? Over." The voice was unfamilar.
"I copy. Who is this? Over."
"This is Flight Captain Andrew Tran of Pelican Echo 719, and we heard you need a lift." The man's voice sounded grim. "And I suggest you hurry. The Covenant are glassing the planet as we speak. We only have two minutes before they reach us. Just hang tight."
"Acknowledged." Jack relaxed against a destoyed Wraith tank. He didn't know whether they'd make it or not. No way to tell.
The ground beneath his feet started to rumble as the pelican approached. It was amazing that after a hundred years, the pelican stayed the same and nothing replaced it.
He saw the back hatch open, and scrambled inside. The look on many of the faces around him told Jack that they had been in a worse fight than him. It began to heat in the compartment as the hatch closed.
Why was it getting so hot, he wondered. Sweat began to pour down his face. The heat temperature began to escalate.
The pilot's voice came through the compartment's speakers. "The Covenant ships are firing their plasma weapons at us!" he screamed frantically. Jack closed his eyes the second before him, the Marines, and the pelican was burned away.
* * * * * * * * *
One of the few ships that remained was in slipspace, heading nowhere at the time. The Firewall sped through in a powerful slipspace bubble. Only two stood on the bridge.
"I can't belive that they glassed Earth." Eric, SPARTAN 367 said, looking at the tactical screen that showed every human world. The last one vanished. "Earth. I can't belive that it's gone." He turned and looked at Vice Admiral John Severen.
He looked at Eric and said, "It was only a matter of time-"
"But why my time?" Eric interrupted as he dropped his SM8B to the deck. "And why now? There could have been a way to save them. Billions of lives wasted." He looked at his fallen SM8B. "There is no way to win anymore. We're all doomed to the same fate.
"It first started with Harvest, then moved to the rest of the Outer Colonies. Next went a few Inner Colonies. The attack on Reach came out of nowhere. Now Earth shares the same fate."
Admiral Severn looked away. "There is nothing we can do."
Eric turned and faced the Admiral. "There is one thing we can do," he said defiantly. "It is the one thing that the SPARTAN IIIs failed to do."
Severn looked at the Spartan, shocked. "You don't mean-"
"Yes. We head to their homeworld, and end this once and for all."
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