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As we headed for the nearest covenant drop point, I noticed a very important change. The terrain had shifted from a wide open plateau with trees and rocks to a vast, flat plain. The plain was about fifty yards below us, and thankfully it was a shallow hill down to the plain. The upcoming battle was sure to be a shooting match. I noticed a large dust cloud in the distance. The Covenant were trying to dig in. This was unusual for them because they usually set up a temporary base, then spread. This change of tactics had me concerned, but not worried. If they wanted to stay put and get picked off that was fine by me. It took us a few moments to tally them all. All sixteen drop ships were hovering just over the ground, acting as stationary turrets, there were four wraiths, all acting as mobile defense, and twelve ghosts already patrolling a loose perimeter of plasma shields and boxes. While I was sure they knew we were coming, I was certain they had not spotted us yet. The wraiths could have easily advanced and opened fire, but they were so busy trying to get organized that we had the total drop on them. I ordered the two pelicans to swing wide to the left and right, and set down flanking parties. Then I ordered one warthog with each pelican, and a sharpshooter to ride shotgun for each warthog. In order to catch them with their pants down, we had to hit them hard all at once. As the two pelicans took off, I ordered the remaining eight hogs to form a v. Once the pelicans had reported their drops and All my hogs were ready to go, I radioed my entire team, " Flanking parties, wait for my hogs to draw the attention. Pick off the wraiths first, then hit the ghosts. Sharpshooters you know the drill, hunters and elites go first, then jackals. Only fire on grunts when you can hit two or more at a time. Don't waste bullets." The barrage of "yes sir"s hit me all at once. It was game time. As we advanced down the hill, I took one last look at my advancing squad. Megan and Jake were with me, but Dave had gone with the flankers, I wanted it that way, his expertise would keep his detachment alive. As we advanced, I could see some of the wraiths turn. They had bought it ! My flankers were now free to move in quickly, the entire Covenant position had turned to face my advancing hogs. We were half a click away when the wraiths opened fire. Thank God that the wraith's plasma mortar is so slow. All the hogs easily juked and zigzagged to avoid fire, all we needed was another hundred to two hundred meters, then we could be effective. By now I could see the ghosts streaking towards us, I raised my rifle and took aim at the lead ghost. The elite had on red armor, so he must have been someone important. I set my cross hairs right on his split chin and squeezed the trigger. The lead Elite snapped backwards and fell off the ghost as his skull exploded like an oversized rotten eggplant. I could hear the other hogs opening fire as well. I then heard the LAAG of my own hog opening up. I saw a nearby ghost explode after being riddled with bullets, tracers running the length of the vehicle. As we were now within a few hundred meters, the flanking parties had now caught up, and were picking the Covenant apart. Rockets and plasma flew everywhere, and I could now hear the elites yelling orders. I set my eyes on my armor for a split second, for I knew we would all be taking some shots before the battle was over. No sooner had this happened than our hog ran over an elite who had left the Covenant position to deal with the flanking parties. I looked right at him as he raised his gun in a last act of defiance and fired. The plasma round hit me right in the chest. It felt like I had just been hit by a brick dropped from a few stories up. I had the wind kicked out of me and I doubled over clutching my rifle. But I noticed something right away, there was no burning. Plasma was hot, it was supposed to burn, as I caught my breath I leaned up and checked out my armor, a three by one inch hole was dead center in my chest, and the hole was smoking a little. The two and a half inch armor had held up ! I was elated, overjoyed, here we were killing Covenant and now some of us would live to tell about it. I guess I spoke too soon. A hunter had worked his way from the center of the Covenant position and opened up with it's fuel rod cannon on the passing warthogs. After three shots, he managed a direct hit on a hog. The armor we were given was not designed to stop an exploding vehicle, Beta company had it's first three casualties of the day. Something told me they wouldn't be the last. Vengeance was ours, for as the hunter turned to lead a warthog, he opened his back to another, and was cut down by hundreds of bullets. We had been attacking for only a few minutes, by now everything that was in the open was dead, save a few panicking grunts. The ferocious, dog like little bastards were now running about like chickens with their heads cut off. LAAG fire penetrated into the group of grunts and mowed them down. Now it was just us, the elites, a few jackals and a hunter. Mind you a few of those elites had wraith tanks and ghosts. Once the wraiths started firing into the circle we had formed around our position, I ordered the hogs with jackhammers to swing wide from the circle and take them head on. As powerful as the plasma cannon was on a wraith, it was shit for leading targets. A few moments later I saw the body of an elite fly over my hog. As I looked to the direction where it came, I saw a flaming wraith. A ghost headed directly for my hog, my gunner was already focused on a wraith, so I lined the head of the elite in my sights and fired. The head of the elite flew back as the bullet smashed through his cranium and turned his head into a crushed egg. The ghost, now without a pilot, fell silently to the ground. My driver juked accordingly, avoiding the ghost, and smearing a jackal who had turned to fire on us. "Wraith down !" " Eat that !" " burn fucker !" Various comments bursted over the comm channel as my marines cut down covenant after covenant. The drop ships were being pelted by LAGG fire and jackhammers. There were four down, and the rest were now making strafing runs like fighters. I looked over in time to see a group of marines in hand to hand with the last few elites. I raised my rifle and sent a slug right through the head of an elite with his hand raised, ready to brain a marine. Suddenly a marine yelled "major check your six !!" Having no time to reload my rifle, my driver mad a tight U turn, fish tailing the warthog. My gunner opened up on their position, but was knocked off the hog when he was hit in the chest by the elites. As I rolled out of the hog, I reached for one of my modified grenades. I pulled the pin and lobbed it over the boxes which the elites were using as cover. The grenade detonated, and two of the five elites flew over the boxes screaming in alien tongues. The hogs stopped and we advanced on foot to the boxes. The covenant weren't returning fire, but we could still hear noise. I sent a private to check it out. We had killed every single Covenant here, save a few dropships which fled the scene. All we had to do was clear this last position until we could report our success. The marine edged closer to the boxes, his AR trained on the source of the noise. He advanced slowly, then stopped suddenly. One of the three elites stumbled forward. The bastard was crawling on his hands and knees, covered with the acid Jake had concocted. It was obviously in pain, so I ordered my men to hold their fire. It was a red elite, and he had now been reduced from crawling to rolling across the ground, it was as if he had been set ablaze by an invisible fire. His body was literally melting away. A slow and horrible death. Good. I looked around at my squad, I saw the looks in their eyes, and in their faces. Too many of their friends and family had died not to savor this moment. A look of vindication was on all their faces. We had won the day, and with minimal losses. I would have to thank Jake for his little toy, and send word around that the armor worked. I ordered the radio set up so I could contact the fleet. |
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