The Fall of Rye: Chapter 1: The Seige
Posted By: teemus<teemusliggs@hotmail.com>
Date: 26 February 2004, 1:29 AM
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Rye system, July 2nd
Norman sat in the gunner's seat of the lead Warthog. He glanced behind him and saw the rest of the 20-vehicle convoy coming over the hill. Norman knew something was up, why else would they of scrambled such a large convoy to assist a Fire Base. He was brought down to reality when there was a huge explosion followed by a scream. Norman quickly pivoted the gun as the driver stepped on the brake, "What the hell was that?" asked the driver.
Norman was too shocked to get the words out of his mouth; over half the convoy had been wiped out. The marine in the passenger seat turned to the driver and shouted, "Go, Go, Go, Lets move!"
"I'm going!" shouted the driver back. Norman watched as the rest of the convoy rumbled back to life. There was a screeching noise and Norman looked to the sky, out of the clouds burst hundreds of the Covenant U-shaped dropships. Norman quickly gathered his senses and opened fire with the LAAG. The guns tracer rounds tore through the lead ships fuselage and caused it to explode. By then the enemy dropships had returned fire. There was yet another explosion as the LAAV (Light Anti-Armor Vehicle) traveling behind Normans 'Hog went up in flames. There was a bright flash and Norman's vision turned to black.
Fire Base Charlie
Captain Luther walked into the command tower and took a look at the monitor in front of him. It showed all clear and right then that wasn't a good thing. "Jackson! Where the hell is that convoy?" questioned the bulky Captain.
"I don't know sir; they vanished off of our radar about ten minutes ago."
"I don't like the sound of that," replied Luther, "Send out a squad of 'Hogs to check it out."
"Yes sir."
Just as Luther was about to walk back out of the door somebody burst in, Luther recognized the man from one of the planets outposts. Then the man walked up to Luther and spoke in ragged breaths, "Sir, We spotted hundreds of enemy dropships inbound."
"What?" replied Luther, "Where are they headed?"
"They branched off; they're all headed towards different UNSC outposts."
"Goddamn, Jackson, cancel that request. Warn the other fire bases and get all Marines on full alert. Today just got a lot more exciting."
Carrier Deception, in orbit around Rye.
PFC Jason sat in the front chair and listened to Major Garcia brief them on the situation. The Covenant had just started a raid of the planet and had taken control of many valuable areas. The call for help came roughly thirty minutes before and within ten the 2nd ODST Battalion had been scrambled. Once the major was done giving his talk he looked around at the men and women of the 2nd ODST battalion and said, "The 3rd and 5th forward Infantry will be going in on Pelicans. How will you be going in?"
"Feet first sir!" shouted the Helljumpers.
"Damn right you will!" shouted the major back, "You got 5." And with that the ODST's got out their seats and made ready.
Jason walked up to his friend Vince and spoke, "How bad do you think it is?"
"I don't know... it had to be pretty bad, the guy on the radio sounded pretty panicked."
"Yeah, hope it's not too bad."
Jason stopped talking when the major walked up to them, "Having a nice conversation?"
"Yes, sir," replied Vince with a fake-seriousness in his voice.
"Well, it's gonna get worse if you don't get your ass into that drop pod!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" shouted both Vince and Jason as they grabbed their gear and went to their pods. Jason pulled the shoulder straps tight and looked at the drop clock, 5...4...3...2...1. There was a sudden lurching and Jason felt his stomach rise as the pod blasted free of the ship. Jason gritted his teeth as the HEV shook violently. He felt the temperature of the pod rise and the skin on the outside began to slowly peal away. Beads of sweat rolled down Jason's forehead and fell to his feet. The pod began to shake more fiercely as it entered the atmosphere. The Private managed to let out a scream as the temperature in the pod rose to 60 degrees Celsius. There was a ripping sound as what was left of the skin of the HEV tore away. Then the pod lurched up as the parachute deployed. Jason took a sigh of relief as the temperature quickly dropped and the rolling hills of Rye came up from under him.
There was a crashing noise as the pod made contact with the ground. Jason quickly tore off his shoulder straps and jumped out of the oval pod. He kicked open the weapons locker located on the exterior of the HEV, weapons were held in place by a rack along with boxes of ammunition. Jason grabbed his MA5B, Pistol, some grenades, and extra bullets for both guns. He walked back into the pod and disabled all of the controls. The last thing they wanted was for the Covenant to find this pod and be able to use it to their advantage, whatever that would be. A faint beeping sound echoed into the PFC's mind; on Jason's transparent screen located in front of his eye, a pulsing red dot appeared.
Above the dot scrolled a name of Major J. Garcia, Jason made his way to the blinking red point. As he got closer he watched the Major stood in middle of a field with his hands on his hips and saw Helljumpers come in from every direction.
To be continued...
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