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“TOUCHDOWN! LETS HIT IT MARINES! GO! GO! GO!” Foe Hammers voice screamed into the COM channel as fiery plasma flew by. The Pelican’s engines were roaring as the squad of Spartans hopped out. John felt strangely safe in his MJOLNIR armor. “No. I have to keep my guard up. These Marines are to be protected, not relied upon,” John thought to himself. The Grunts shrill screams and barks filled the air. “Frag out!” a Marine called. “Hunters at two ‘o’ clock!” John and the other Spartans fought their hardest against these Covenant. Every one they killed boosted their and the Marines morale. Linda drew a bead on the giant heap of armor’s weak spot. The orange mass of uncovered muscle could take one hit then lights out. John let out a burst of assault rifle rounds to distract the other Hunter. John found it interesting that the Hunters barely ever fought alone. They could definitely fight by themselves. John jumped out of the way as a fuel rod cannon burst flew by. Even through his suit, he could still feel a small amount of heat from the projectile. Linda fired an anti-materiel round into the Hunter. It dropped dead with a metallic thud and a suppressed roar. “Elites! We’ll take care of them! You take that last Hunter!” A familiar Marine voice yelled into the COM radio. Josh pulled out his customized shotgun and blasted rounds into the waves of Grunts and Jackals. “I need some help over here!” Josh screamed. “Fred, Jake! Go help Josh! Use those Jackhammers! Kelly, Tracy! Help those Marines get those Elites!” John ordered into his intercom. John spotted an Elite in the corner of his eye. He spun around, down into a kneel and fired a burst, switched to his pistol, zoomed in, and drew a headshot and took it. The alien’s head exploded on impact and spurted out purple blood. The snow crunched under the boot of the Master Chief. He felt uncomfortable on snow; he had only been on it twice. LOOK OUT! The Covenant has armor and air support! We’ve got two scorpions and three warthogs on the way! A couple SkyHawks, too! Another marine shouted in the radio. The SkyHawks were the UNSC’s infantry workhorses. It sported four homing jackhammer launchers, two super-miniguns, a grenade launcher, an Archer missile pod, two SS2AM guns, and a suped down scorpion tank cannon. John had seen them slaughter thousands of Covenant at once. Kelly sprinted to the last Hunter and fired a jackhammer in the beasts face. As the smoke cleared, the Hunter stood standing while charging his fuel rod cannon. John pulled out his MA5B assault rifle and pulled the trigger. Nothing. Empty. SSHHOOOOKABOOOOOOM!!! A scorpion shock round flew into the Hunter. John felt the rumble and heard the low roar of the scorpion’s engines. John revolved around and saw three warthogs and the two scorpions sent to “help”. “More like mop up the LZ” John thought to himself. The Spartans and Marines fell back and let the vehicles take the remainder of the Covenant. “ Hey MC! We got multiple drop ships inbound! Brace for Covs!” a Marine, Pvt. Jenkins, yelled on the full squad channel. John checked his HUD. “Hey Linda! Where are those SkyHawks?!” “Inbound, Sir! In firing range in 3, 2, 1, lets kick some Covenant!” The SkyHawks roared into the air, guns blazing. Streams of smoke, fire, tracers, and shells flew from the ship. The covenant on the ground didn’t stand a chance. Grunts, jackals, elites, and hunters were ripped apart by the SkyHawks guns. The scorpions and warthogs rolled in to take out the armor: banshees, ghosts and wraiths. “Linda, find our location! Cortana get us a NAV point!” John barked. “We’re at coordinates alpha154 delta228 omega0000018. We’re just over five miles from our first objective.” Linda answered. “Okay! Lets divide up our teams! Red, blue, green and yellow! Kelly, Sam and I will take red! Josh, Fred, and Linda take blue! Jake, Roger, and Tracy take green! Kael, Marie, and Irene, you’ve got yellow! That’s four teams of eight Marines and three Spartans! HQ scheduled a dust-off at 2300 hours! Lets hit it!” John ordered. He looked up into the mile-high canyon walls. “Banshees!!!” someone screamed. “Delta movement! Now!” Sam yelled. Every soldier rolled to nearby rocks. “Jacobs! Run!!” “My leg! Aww! It burns!” Two Marines talked to each other. “ARRRRG- Jacobs stopped. Time seemed to slow as a fuel rod burst hit him. The dust settled and he was disintegrated. Particles of flak and steel blew away. “NOOOOOO!!!” a Marine yelled. “Robertson! No! Get back over here!” Sergeant Mendez barked “ NO! He’s still out there! We gotta save him!” “ He’s dead, Robertson. He ain’t coming back.” Mendez told the Marine. John and a few other Marines opened fire on the banshees overhead. The banshee’s engines howled as it made a tight turn back. A second banshee took its place. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!” Jake screamed as he and a Marine both fired two shells each into the air. The banshee swerved and the first shell missed by a hair’s breadth. The next three rockets hit the banshee dead-on. It’s black and burning hull fell to the ground with tremendous force. Eight Marines open fired upon the last banshee. “Cover me.” John ordered to his Spartans. He tore to a Covenant stationary cannon, hopped in and studied the controls for a split-second. John aimed up at the banshee and fired the plasma bolts in full-auto. We’ve shattered the armor on it! Let’s take this sucker down!!! John immediately recognized the Marine voice as Private Jenkins. The banshee fired plasma and a fuel rod burst directly at John. He blasted one more trio of plasma at the ship then jumped out the shade. The super-heated plasma sunk directly into the hull as the ship fell into a mound of snow. The fuel rod burst hit the cannon a quadrillasecond after the Master Chief hopped out. The shade flipped onto the snow at the foot of John. “Looks like you Spartans really are super soldiers.” Corporal Harland said, smirking. “Come on! The clock’s ticking! We don’t have all day! Let’s move, MOVE, MOVE!!! “There. In the cliff. I see the base. There are two wraith tanks guarding the entrance. I think if we sneak by them we can get in undetected.” Cortana said in a smooth voice. “Tsk! Forget that! We have to get them now if we want a smooth exit.” The Master Chief answered. “Blue and yellow teams, you take the wraith on the left. Green and red team will take the one on the left. Let’s do this.” The two groups of soldiers sprinted to their objectives and opened fire. Thousands of rounds hit the alien vehicles as four ghosts and dozens of grunts surged through the tunnel. Sergeant Mendez fired his sniper rifle at the screaming grunts, killing every one with one shot. Corporal Harland fired one jackhammer missile at each of the tanks, destroying them both. Then all of the Marines turned their attention to the grunts. Round after round after round lanced into the aliens. Jackhammer rockets and grenades were chucked into the waves of aliens. Grunt bodies flew and died by the thousand. The grunts began to pile on top of Sergeant Mendez. “Get ‘em off of me!” he screamed. Bones broke. John heard a gurgling sound then Mendez’s life monitor went dead on John’s HUD. John ran into the barrage of grunts hitting them with the butt of his rifle. He wanted every one of them to pay. He punched them crushed them and made sure they all died a most agonizing death. The grunts screamed for mercy, but the Master Chief wouldn’t stop. “Hey MC! Jackals!” John turned to see a collection of the small aliens with their shields. Eight of the jackals fired charged bolts of plasma at a group of Marines. The plasma burned the air around them, then hitting one of the Marines. He fell to the ground without a sound. Everyone immediately knew that he was dead. No Marine has ever survived that many bolts. “Grenade ‘em!” Kelly called. Fragmentation grenades soared through the air, landing behind the aliens. Fire flared near the uncovered backs of the shielded creatures. They screamed as they climbed up into the air from the detonation of the explosives, as the grenades shattered the ghosts. “Jackals wiped, Sir!” Sgt. Johnson said. “Regroup!” John replied. The Marines and Spartans scurried to the Master Chief. “Down this tunnel is a Covenant base and hundreds of thousands of Covenant. Some of us will die but we all must try to live to fight another day. Remember leave no soldier behind. Every Covenant soldier that we kill is one step closer to saving humanity. Let’s roll.” John looked down into the tunnel. He couldn’t see any Covenant. They were almost surely going to try to ambush them. Kelly dashed into the gaping hole in the ground. The others followed. “ Whoa, slow down. I’m picking up multiple enemies on the motion tracker.” Sergeant Rowland said, “Elites!” Sam blazed jackhammer missiles into the vulture-headed creatures. Purple blood spattered on his helmet. Chunks of alien armor soared into the sky. “All clear.” He said. John led the others further into the tunnel. The walls were massive and scorched with plasma. It made John feel small. The end of the tunnel was a corner with blue-silver metallic walls that morphed into the tunnel’s. They walked onto the surface. THUD. THUD. THUD. Hunters. It has to be. Two giant creatures turned the corner followed by several grunts. “DAAAH! LOOK OU-” one squealed before it was crushed by the hunter’s foot. Roger fired a jackhammer between the hunters, killing the grunts. Sam and Kelly smashed the butts of their assault rifles into the alien’s faces. That didn’t do anything to them through their armor. “OPEN FIRE!!!” Jake screamed. Rounds sunk deep into the hunter’s armor. A hunter raised its arm to fire its fuel rod cannon at four Marines. John looked at the green fire as it flew by and landed in the group of soldiers. As the plasma particles cleared, he could see that the Marines were evaporated. Sam threw a grenade that must have exploded perfectly behind the hunters because after the detonation, they died instantly. The group of soldiers moved on, further into enemy territory. John saw a strange panel near a colossal door. He pressed a button and a lock turned and the doors opened. Inside was a vast loading dock with thousands of Covenant soldiers. “ They must be preparing for an assault.” Cortana said. Hundreds of dropships, frigates, destroyers, and other vessels were lined up neatly. Joshua’s pistol dropped an empty shell and pinged on the metal floor. Suddenly thousands of plasma and fuel rod bursts, needles, and plasma grenades burned through the air. “TAKE COVER!” the Spartans yelled in unison. The Marines and Spartans rolled to boxes and fired their weapons simultaneously. “I NEED BACKUP NOW! I’VE LOST SIX SOLDIERS ALREADY! REPEAT! I NEED MORE AMMUNITION AND SOLDIERS!” John yelled at the top of his lungs into his radio. “We cannot send more soldiers! We’re having our own problems up here! Two covenant frigates, two destroyers, and a carrier with those fighter Seraphs! We can only teleport you supplies!” Captain Keyes of The Pillar Of Autumn answered from space. “WELL THEN DO IT!!!” John replied. John peered over his cover, a strange Covenant computer, and then fired a full extended clip into the scores of enemies. In front of him, a yellow light appeared then a black box formed. John kicked it open and threw extra ammo, grenades, and medical supplies to everyone. It was total chaos. Thirty-eight humans against uncountless Covenant? The odds were insane, but they were the best soldiers ever to fight on the battlefield. Sam and eleven other Marines fired jackhammer rockets over and over and over and over. Plumes of sparks, fire, and smoke rose from the ground. Two more boxes of supplies appeared. John slammed rounds into the box. Kelly policed the equipment and passed it out. “Kelly! Give me one of those jackhammers!” John ordered. She threw him a rocket launcher and some extra shells. John strapped the five packs of two rockets together and threw the launcher to Linda. “Fire at these on my mark!” He told her. He handed the rockets to Sam. “Chuck these as high and far as you can when I tell you!” the Master Chief barked. “NOW!” he yelled. The rockets flew swiftly into the air. “MARK!” he told Linda. The missile hit the bundle of explosives in midair. “HIT THE DECK!” the MC yelled. A shower of fire and shrapnel fell from the sky, killing most of the Covenant. All of the soldiers ran into the remaining aliens, slaughtering them. John asked Cortana to find the NAV database, which was their objective. They had to get that. If they did, it would reveal the Covenant’s home planet. John watched the other soldiers clean their weapons and change their clips. “Hang on a second. I think. Yes! There it is! Down that hall!” Cortana replied in her silky voice. John told the Marines and other Spartans their orders. He scanned the area with his thermal sensors. Nothing. Good. John ordered the Marines and six Spartans to stay here. The other six Spartans ran to the data room. The doors opened with a hissing sound before them. They ran into the room, sweeping each other’s blind spots. “There! I see it!” Roger said. He dove for the memory cube, but was killed by a pulse laser turret on the ceiling. “Don’t move!” he ordered, “I knew this was too easy.” He muttered to himself. John shot a grappling hook at the cube. He reeled it back in like a fish and put it in his helmet. “Mission accomplished. Let’s go home.” He said. The soldiers backtracked to the tunnel entrance for dust off. Pelicans hovered above the ground as the Marines and Spartans hopped in. As the dropships exited the atmosphere, John told himself “that’s one more Covenant stronghold that won’t bother us again.” |
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