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The Renegade Marines Part IX - The Base
Posted By: Shadow<Shadowolf16@aol.com>
Date: 30 March 2002, 3:24 pm


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Kroeger watched the carnage of the covenant being blasted away by the tanks and warthogs. He continued to fire until his pulse rifle clip was out. He looked down into the valley and saw the enemies being blown to hell, and their blue and purple blood spurting all over the valley grounds. He then took out his IMDS scanner and scanned the area for any survivors down in the valley. The eyepiece made his vision reddish, and enhanced his heat seeking and movement scanning abilities. After looking for a minute, he deactivated the eyepiece and called to his marines. It seemed that the Intel from the general was correct. There was a much smaller force occupying this area, from last time he had come here.

"I think we got them all."
"Wow, that was easy."
"Yea, we really took it to them!"
"It's not over yet boys. We still need to go inside the base and make sure there are no enemies in there."
"Oh man!"
"Crap..."
"Alright boys, I want warthogs to secure the entrance, followed by the troops. The scorpion tanks will stay atop the valley wall for vehicle support in case we need it."
"Roger."

The warthogs sped off ahead, while the troops ran down the valley wall, careful to make sure there were no more enemies in the area. When they got to the entrance, one of the warthog gunners gave Kroeger a status report.

"Sir, it seems that there are still some 'o them Covenant in there. They sealed the main doors shut with some of their tools."
"Hmmm, alright. Jehdon, I want a TEG52 remote on that door pronto!"
"Sir, yes sir!"

The marine moved up quickly to the doorway, dropping his gun at the same time. As he neared the door, the took out a large satchel charge with two exhaust pipes coming out of one side. He attached the satchel charge upon the door, and backed away to the main marine group. He took out a remote, and detonated the charge. The charge's exhaust system ignited, and started melting the sealed door. As the door was almost melted, Jehdon pressed a second button on the remote that caused the TEG52 to explode, sending the melted fragments flying in all directions. All that was left of the main door was bits of slag in the entranceway. As the door exploded all the marines held up their guns, ready to get flooded with enemy Covenant. But all they saw was an empty hallway, with echoes of the loading of their pulse rifles. Kroeger stood up and looking suspiciously at the hallway, then turned to his marines.

"Alright, I want Keg's and Irok's squads to go into the base, and make sure there aren't any enemies left inside. I want Gibdon, and Tobday's teams to stay out here and provide cover if they need it. My squad will go in and take six right behind Keg's and Irok's team."
"Sir, yes sir!"

Keg and Irok immediately led their teams through the hallway, and Kroeger took up the six with his squad. As they ran in, they looked around, but there was still no Covenant. Blue Covenant lights lit the hallways. The hallways had the normal geometrical shape of all the Covenant buildings. There were numerous control panels along the walls. They lit up the hallways with neon flashes as they ran through. Kroeger didn't pay attention to the distractions though, he wanted the Covenant, and he wanted them bad. They ran through 3 sets of doors, but with nothing. They kept running, still finding nothing in the hallways but empty echoes of their shoes slamming into the ground. They soon came up to an intersection, and Kroeger signaled for the team to stop.

"I want a formation-6 at 3, move!"
"The first 18 men broke off, and moved up to the intersection. The 18 men split up into 3 groups of six, with each group moving into and scanning each of the 3 passageways. They kneeled down, looking around, but there was still nothing.

"Sir, nothing here."
"This is left side, nothing."
"This is forward side, I think this is where we're supposed to go."
"Roger, move forward team!"

The group scanning the forward passage ran up ahead for reconnaissance, while the main group followed them up. The 12 troops that were scanning the left and right passages, took up the rear. As the team continued to move, Kroeger started getting a bad feeling in his stomach. He knew there was something wrong with this mission, something very wrong. He looked up and saw that they were coming up to a fork. Unlocked doors blocked both the left and right hallways. Kroeger signaled for the team to stop, and he turned around to them. He took out a GP07 scanning device and tooled around with it for a while, and then looked up to his team.

"I've scanned the area with the GP07. There's a main control center on the other side of these hallways. If we can get there, we can scan the area for the Covenant team. Both hallways lead to the control center. I want Irok's and Keg's teams to move through the left passage. My squad and me will take the right passage. With these thick walls, we won't be able to communicate until we meet at the control center. First team there wins."
"Yes sir!"

Irok and Keg immediately took their teams through, and their hallway was clear. As they moved through, Kroeger went through the other hallway, and led the team through. As they got through part of the hallway, they started moving up a ramp. As they neared the top, Kroeger saw an unsightly gold, and his heart dropped, he looked up and saw 2 gold elites pointing running at them. He kneeled down, and yelled out.

"Elite class-5! Hit the decks!"

The marines immediately kneel down, and started pummeling the elites with pulse rifle fire. The Elites were unaware of the new technology and were smacked back by the new weapons. Their shield held out for a split second before they were blown away. Their blood flew out of their bodies and splattered all over the place. Kroeger ran up to the dead elites, with small sparks of electricity running through their bodies. It seemed the pulse rifles were extremely effective.

"Sir, I think we got 'em good. Downed 2 elites without 1 casualty!"
"Well, if we have gold elites patrolling the area, then who knows what is waiting for us in the control center. We need to keep moving, or we're toast."

The marines started moving again, leaving the ripped up dead bodies where they were. The troops kept on moving, but met no more enemies until the GP07 began to beep. Kroeger immediately grabbed for it and took a look. His eyes lit up at the screen and he smiled.

"Hey boys, looks like we made it to the control room. Let's stay frosty though."
"Yes Sir!"

Kroeger slowly walked through, and saw the doors were locked. He examined the locking mechanism, and turned back to the marines.

"Jehdon, I want a TIR48 deactivation system here on the double!"
"Yes Sir!"

Jehdon ran up to the locking console and pulled out a small console system, and attached it to the locking mechanism controls. He twiddled around with it until the door unlocked.

"Got it sir."
"Troops secure the area."
"Hey, I wonder what happened to the..."

The marine's words were lost as he saw the interior of the control room. The entire room was littered with human bodies. Some were on the floor, while some were sprawled on the control panels. The room was full with red blood like some sick painting. He looked around in disbelief and finally was able to utter some words.

"I want a quick check of the bodies. I wanna make sure we're not leaving any of our men behind."

The marine team made a quick check of the bodies, while the rest of the members kneeled down, flinching and twitching at every sound or movement that they saw or heard. After the marines finished checking the bodies, Jehdon ran up to Kroeger.

"Sir, looks like they're all dead. We found Irok's body, as well as the other marines. It seems they got here first, but they didn't make it."
"Sir! Wait! Keg's alive!"

The seemingly lifeless body of Keg, started moving and stood up. He slowly walked up to Kroeger and smiled.

"You guys made it. I was knocked out in the middle of the firefight. The Covenant must have thought I was dead. Look, we need to get out RIGHT NOW."
"Alright Sergeant. Boys, lets get going."

As the marines turned to leave, a blue light shone through a marine's body. The light went through his body like a hot knife through butter. Warm blood feel to the ground as the marine's body fell lifeless. Kroeger turned around and yelled, as he fired his pulse rifle.

"DAMN YOU!"

The rifle tore right through the elite, but as soon as it was blown away, 3 other energy swords were activated. He looked around, and the only exit was the way Irok's team had entered.

"Marines we are leaving!"

There were two marines that were still in the middle of the room as the main group got out.

"Sir! Lock the damn doors! Don't wait for us! Get out! Get the tea..."

The blue blade chopped his body in half as the other shot the control mechanism of the door, and it swung close. Kroger looked in disgust in their fateful death, and began to run to catch up to the main group.

"The door should hold them for a while."

As soon as he finished his sentence, the door was blown clear off of it hinges, and flew into the hallway.

"As you were saying Commander?"

As the door flew out, a golden elite jumped through the doorway
The marines turned around and pelted the golden marine with pulse rifle rounds. The elite's body went limp with hundreds of bullets in his electrocuted body. The marines turned around and started running again. More gold elites came jumping out of the ceilings ahead of them. The elites were equipped with needlers, and they fired their entire clips into the marine group. The marines took some heavy damage, but fired back with heavy pulse rifle fire. One of the elites lost both of his arms, and fell dead, with his purple blood flying out of his body. The second one, ran up to the group, and whacked two of his men. He heard a 'snap' of the necks, and he knew they were dead. The remaining marines yelled with absolute hatred, that they pumped the elite with enough clips that it made it explode into a million electrocuted pieces.

"Sir, lets get the hell outta here!"
"Sir, enemy g-elites, coming in from behind, we need to get out now!"
"Alright. Move boys!"

The marines ran for their lives, no longer in formation. Kroeger, still in fear, knew there was something wrong with this. The most g-elites he had ever seen in a battle would be 1, maybe 2. Even in the huge battles, he would come toe-to-toe with one or two. But this was at least 20 of them. This must have been a trap. There was no other explanation. The marines kept on running, almost out of the compound. All of a sudden, the roof above them caved, in with golden elites standing on top of them. They fired their plasma rifles, and blew holes into the first 3 marines, and Kroeger felt a splatter on his face. Something wet. He wiped his cheek, and saw that it was human blood...and then he looked down and saw three of his fellow marines limp and dead. As he looked down in terror, the other marines took out the golden elites.

"A few more feet men! Lets move!"

The marines moved at full speed, when two golden elites with plasma swords showed up at the intersection, and started causing havoc. The first two marines were ripped in half, while the other marines tore through the elites. Their golden bodies were stained with both red and purple blood that created an unsightly pink along the hallway walls.

"Everyone out!"

The marines turned around and started for the entranceway. All of a sudden, a backup door closed into position where the TEG52 detonator had blown the other set of doors.

"Damnit! Trapped like rats!"
"We're finished man!"
"Relax. Tobday, get these doors open."
"But sir, we don't have a TEG detona-"
"RIGHT NOW!"
"Sir, yes sir!"

The marines started welding the doors open, while Kroeger and the trapped marines turned around ready to fight to the death. He heard thunderous hooves hit the ground up ahead. He knew what was coming. The full force of the golden elites was coming. He twitched in fear as his sweat rolled down his cheeks. His slippery hands held tight onto his pulse rifle.

"No matter what boys, we're gonna go down together!"
"Sir, yes sir!"

The men were all sick to their stomachs in fear of the golden elite troops. All of a sudden, the walls in front of them exploded with blue fire. They were Covenant grenades.

"Fire! Fire! They're here!"

As soon as the blue mist cleared, blue energy orbs came rushing at the group. Two men fell as the rest continued to fire. The battle was intense. Kroeger's IMDS scanner read that there were at least 30 of them on the other side of the hall.

"Sir, we're losing numbers fast!"
"Just fire!"
"Tobday, where's the doors!"
"Almost done!"

The troops continued to fire, but with the long range, the pulse rifles did minimal damage. Troops fell like butterflies in a nuclear explosion.

"It's open! Get out!"

The doors were pulled open by Tobday, as the troops backed out of the base.

"We're retreating to the tanks' positions. Go Go Go!!!"

Kroeger ran out of the doors, shooting his pistol while running away. The warthogs were the last to leave, but the drove off, and caught up with the marines immediately. The golden elites weren't giving up, and they were running straight at Kroeger and the marines. Firing at the dwindling force.

"We're dead."





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