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Once the radio was set up, I got on the comm. and punched in the frequency for the nearest ship, "The Hellion". Once the ship was raised, I asked for the captain. " This is "The Hellion" we are currently engaged, we are down to eight ships, "The Rapier" rammed the enemy flagship, both are destroyed, we are now mopping up the last three destroyers now." Finally, success in space. The shields had worked so well we had won with 70-10 odds. I could hardly believe it. My joy ride came to an end when the captain spoke up. " I am transferring this comm. over to "The Last Stand". They have the details for your next mission. This is the captain, over and out." I turned to my squad and informed them of our status in space, which was followed by cheers of victory. While waiting for "The Last Stand" to come over the comm. I surveyed the battlefield, there sure were a lot of covenant weapons laying around. Covenant weapons were hands down more effective than ours. " I want you to load your weapons on the pelicans, those with jack hammers and sniper rifles keep your guns, hold on to your pistols, but trade your AR's for Covenant weaponry. That is an order !" My men dispersed to gather their guns. "Heavy weapons assemble on me." With that ten marines came up to me, half with sniper rifles, the other half with jack hammers. No sooner had they assembled on me than "The Last Stand" came back over the comm. I did not get some radioman, I got the captain himself. " You are to head to coordinates 135 by 223, Alpha squad was not as lucky as you are, they are currently getting their asses kicked, Loren tells me you can make it in ten minutes if you hustle. Get moving !". Alpha squad, sure they were rugged, but against the covenant, rugged didn't cut it. I ordered my squad to move out, but I noticed three next to some wreckage not moving, I was about to yell when I saw they were taking the LAAG off the wrecked warthog. Smart thinking, we would definitely need it later. "Get that on board the pelican now !" Everyone was ready to go, and I took shotgun once again. I pulled out my little command handheld, and punched the coordinates in, this way it would be on everyone's HUD. As we took off, it was getting dark, this was bad, because the only night vision we had came with the sniper rifles. I came over the squad comm. " When we get there, spread out. I want jack hammers and snipers to hang back, use your NV to point out enemy positions, jack hammers hit them hard, hogs swing wide and fire inwards, circle and destroy. Cleanup, on my mark crash up the middle. No grenades until all friendly positions are known. We didn't know if any Covenant could see in the dark, we would find out soon enough. I could see the explosions ahead of us, we were close. " Alright people we are getting close, stick to the plan and stay smart. No charges unless ordered. We will do a lot more damage keeping our distance." As we approached the fighting, I took in the surroundings. Three down drop ships, the rest nowhere to be found, and the covenant using them for cover at the top of a hill, the marines covered by a down pelican and boulders. The Covenant held higher ground, not good. I ordered the pelicans to keep a few marines to provide cover fire, and then to make passes over the covenant positions. If nothing else they would get the Covenant to look the other way. " Ok, snipers point out the Covenant behind those drop ships, jack hammers lay it to them, no one move until that happens. We will fire once the pelicans have gotten their attention." A few moments later, the snipers came over the comm. They had chosen their targets and guided the jack hammers to the right firing spots. No sooner had the jack hammers acquired their targets, the pelicans flew past the covenant, one with several marines firing plasma rifles, the other firing the LAAG. The covenant behind the drop ships immediately stopped picking off marines in the rocks to open fire on the pelicans. " Jackhammers fire !" The streaks off the rockets were barely visible in the night air, their burning tails speeding towards an unaware enemy. The explosion of five rockets nearly made the ground shake. " Snipers BDA now !" A split second later, all five snipers came over the comm. "That blast took out about a third of them. They are scattering, permission to fire" Good, they were now leaving their cover. " Fire at will snipers, jack hammers reload and hit them again." The second volley did as much damage as the first. I wished we could have moved faster, there weren't many marines left in the rocks. Contrails from the snipers were barely visible, but I guess the covenant must have traced them back to us, shots were now headed our way. "Warthogs move ! Circle, fire inwards, kill them all! " For some reason this very basic tactic worked well against the covenant, I never did figure out why. I suppose it is because they were used to just running over the enemy, the odds were in our favor so long as they stayed put. And stay put they did. As we circled raining plasma fire, rockets, LAAG shells and sniper rounds, the covenant were so baffled that they didn't know which way was up. The few grunts were running wildy, just as before, the elites were charging blindly out of pure rage, and dying just as quickly. The Jackals seemed a bit more level headed, they had a phalanx formation covering for a few elites. This little group put fire on one of the pelicans, knocking out one of it's engines, it caught fire and limped away. I tried to raise the pelican. " Pelican Bravo229 are you ok ?" I had to wait a few seconds for a reply. " Sir we are ok, I'm setting it down about 500 meters from here, just over the ridge, we will be fine. I'm sending the marines on foot to help." No sooner had I heard this than the pelican disappeared over the ridge. I didn't hear any secondary explosions. I didn't hear much of anything over the fighting going on around me. I noticed one gold elite using a panel off the drop ship as a secondary shield. He had his sword at the ready, and that sword could cut through several marines with a twitch. This one was mine, I raised my rifle, and aimed. He was holding still, crouched and deflecting bullets with the drop ship panel. Easy target. I squeezed the trigger and watched as the bullet flew right at his left knee. I knew his shields would stop the first round, maybe the second, but not the third. His shields must have been special, he hardly flinched. I fired again, and this time watched a whitish blue wave cover his body. His shields were down, and I was ready with my third shot. I watched through my scope as the round blew his leg off from the knee down. He fell, dropping his panel. The rest of the marines were engaged elsewhere. "No one fire on the gold elite, he is mine" A simple request met with the sight of an elite, rolling in pain, and screaming in his language all sorts of mean things. The rest of the Covenant were dead, the last elite aside from the gold one had just died gurgling up it's own blood. They were on mop up, so I hopped out of the hog. I ordered my driver and gunner to help the others, I wanted some one on one with this elite. He was screaming out loud as I walked up to him, his sword was still glowing bright blue, he look up at me and snarled, I was shocked to hear it speak. This one spoke English ! I approached with my rifle at the ready as it screamed at me " Evil human, my brethren will kill you all !" I laughed at him spitting on him and replying, " your brethren are dead, and my marines are shooting their dead bodies. As for you, I am going to kill you myself, you will die slow for the millions of innocents your kind have killed." He responded by yelling at me in Covenant, and his next move about made me cringe, he raised his sword, and brought it down on his bleeding leg, frying the stump, and cauterizing the wound. I backed up a little, my rifle trained on the hand that held the sword. "Ok so now what you bastard ?" It looked at me with a glare that chills me to this day. " By Dakshalath I will see to it that you die a slow and horrible death human ! " It lunged at me, and I fired a round into the hand holding the sword, blowing it off. The gold elite immediately knelt in pain. It grabbed the bleeding stump where it's hand used to be, and raised it's eyes to me, and with it's split chin uttered, I will see you in Alkar human ! May the gods bring you the worst death imaginable !" With that he reached behind his back and pulled out a plasma grenade, and stuck it to his shoulder, he lunged. I backpedaled and fired, putting a round in his other leg, he stumbled, but got me in a bear hug. I thought my ribs were going to break. He screamed at the top of his lungs "DIE !!!" At that very second, his head blew back and shattered into a million pieces, he fell away from me, and I dove as the grenade went off. Crawling to my knees, A hand in a combat glove lowered to help me, I grabbed it and pulled myself up. My blurred vision halted as I stared into Megan's face. "You can thank me later Major," she said with a wry smile. " No I'll thank you now, thank you." I dusted myself off and ordered my squad to assemble. Out of the original fifty, forty were left, the leftovers of Alpha were in no condition to fight, I ordered our only pelican to take them up to the nearest fleet vessel. "Be sure to come back with LAAG shells, jackhammer rockets and plenty of sniper rifle ammo." I radioed as the pelican sped away. Time for some morale boosting. " Every single one of you kicked ass. I want contact with fleet established, so we can get our next mission, but not until after we get some rest. Before we rest, I want us to gather weapons just like last time. Everyone get some sleep and chow, we're just getting warmed up down here. My marines were tired, as was I. As I found a soft spot on the ground, I dozed off to sleep. |
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