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Running Riot- Part 1
Posted By: Simon James<simonjames290@hotmail.com>
Date: 17 July 2003, 4:52 PM


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Part 1

       Private Johnston of the UNSC Marine Corps stood behind a baracade blocking Hw101. The barricade was made up of empty ammo crates and other odd pieces of junk. He held an assult rifle at the ready to defend the position. The Covenant had twice already attacked them and wern't the type to give up easily. He had once seen a grunt with only one arm and no weapon attack a fellow marine, despite the fact the marine was twice his size.

       Down the line were two other marines taking shelter behind a burnt out Warthog. One lent causily on the carcass of the 'hog smoking a cigar, while the other knelt over a sniper rifle, looking down the scope. "See anythin' yet, Joe?" Asked the first. "Not yet Sarge." Joe replyed. "Only bodies and..." He paused, then shouted, "Get ready! Here they come!"

       Indeed they did. A mass a grunts charged towards the marine lines, yelling and barking in their odd language. Some went down onto all fours, completing the image of dogs. Behind them came Elites, the feild commanders, who sprinted like champion runners and soon overtook the grunts. For them it was a race to see who could kill the most humans.

       Johnston opened fire on the first Covie bastard to enter his sights. It was an unfortunate Elite who recieved a long burst of hot lead. It took down his shields and rendered him helpless. A second burst finished him off. Johnston emptied the rest of his first mag into the general direction of the enemy. No mater what, he would hit something.

       Joe, down the line, was much more precise. His first shot took out a gold Elite. The heavy round took off half the Elite's head and the shields on the Elite behind. Sarge took out that one next. "Want to move yet Joe?" Asked Sarge above the din of small arms fire. "Nope. They havn't seen us yet." He replyed

       Joe managed to finish off the rest of his mag before concentrated fire was focused on him. Each shot ment that the Covenant was less one or even two high ranking officiers. When a grunt got too close to their position, Sarge took it out with his assult rifle. Then they ran, Joe changing mags as he went, and Sarge relighting his cigar.

       By now, live Warthogs had been brought up to the front. Although they provided devestating fire support, most marines steered clear of them. They were known death traps because the Covies tended to notice them fairly soon and concentrated to destroy the 'hog. And wheen the thing went up, all it's ammo went up with it. The drivers kept moving as much as possible, but sometimes were caught down. This was the main killer of 'hogs and their brave crew.

       This is what happened to a 'hog as Joe and Sarge passed it. The entire crew was killed by a flurry of plasma. By a maricle, the 'hog didn't explode. For some reason, Joe marked it's position in his head. In the meantime, Sarge looked for a perfect fireing hole for Joe. He spotted one near some other marines. The one they settled next to was IDed as Pvt. Johnston on their HUDs.

       Johnston hardly noticed their arrival. He was too engrosed in fireing at the enemy. He went for yet another mag. His hand dug into the pouch but came up empty. He looked down and rooted through the pouch again. It was empty. "I'm out!" He shouted. A marine he hadn't noticed before threw one to him. Before he loaded, Johnston took a look at the man. He was remarkable lightly armored. Johnston wondered why before he saw the sniper nearby. This guy must be a spotter for him.

       Johnston reloaded his rifle and looked up again. He was surprised to see how close the Covenant were to the barricade. He almost let off his etire mag before he remembered it was his last. Instead he fired in controled busrts, aiming for grunts. He didn't have the ammo to take out any more Elites.

       Joe did though. He took out four with four rounds. As he reloaded, Sarge commented, "Not bad. But we may need to go soon. Them bastards are gettin close." Joe looked up over his scope and was astonashed as well. Sarge had a way of understateing things. The enemy was barely 100 feet away. "Right, we're gone soon." He agreed. He returned to his scope, sighting on high rankers far in the rear. This time he only got three, but all were gold Elites.

       Johnston had finished his mag again and drew his M6D sidearm. It was a special one sent from home. It had an extended 23 round mag and a longer barrel. It had a range only slightly less then that of his rifle. He fired it at the first Elite he saw. This time it only took a few hits to take it down. Around him, some marines were falling back, or down. It depended if they were hit or not. Johnston decided to follow so that he didn't become the latter of the two. Live to fight another day and all

       Joe and Sarge had the same mentality. They moved back as well. "Come on, Joe." Urged Sarge. Joe was having trouble carring his heavy rifle. Sarge decided they need some transport. He wouldn'd get any from the 'hog drivers. They would want to get away as fast as posible. "We need a Warthog!" He told Joe. Joe snaped his fingers. "I know just where to get one!" He said. So with Joe guiding, they ran for the abandoned 'hog Joe had spotted earlier.

       When they arrived it was seen that no one else had been as smart as them. The 'hog lay undesturbed where it had been earlier. Sarge jumped into the driver's seat and Joe swung up onto the rear platform and took control of the LAAG there. They drove off with Joe firing back at the enemy, who now were almost at the lines. Most marines had pulled back and were also on the run.

       One of these marines was Johnston. He heard the whine of a 'hog and looked around. He saw the sniper from earlier along with his spotter driving away. He jumped into their path. They stopped in time and Johnston hopped into the passenger seat. They sped away with Sarge berating Johnston for his stupidity.

End of part 1.
This was my first story in a while. What do you think?





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