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Halo Side Story Chapter Two: Getting to know you
Posted By: Jordan Dotson<juniormint37@hotmail.com>
Date: 9 September 2002, 11:26 pm
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Dotson sat near the rear of the truck, it was his usual place. Since he was a crack shot with his sniper rifle, the squad needed him in a place where he could shoot at any threat. It amused Dotson that even when they weren't in a Pelican and not in a combat zone that the squad sat where they usually sat. Just like old times he thought.
He looked over his squad; they were still like he remembered them.
Across from him sat David, one of the squads snipers, he was usually in good humor, like Dotson, but he had also taken Capelli hard. He was fairly big for a sniper, about six-four and nearly twice as wide as Dotson. He usually wore one of the caps that some of the marines wore, although now he was wearing the distinctive beret that the angels wore. He wasn't the highest ranking Angel, Only a third lieutenant, but he was one of the most skilled in combat he had possibly the most covenant kills of all of the squad.
On Dotson's right sat one of his heavy weapon specialists, Jzou. He was also a bit on the large side, which most people mistook as fat. But his size was mostly muscle. Jzou was Chinese, not that it really mattered with humanity against the ropes. He was probably the most problematic of the squad, he didn't like the thought of Dotson being in command and he voiced it upon occasion. But in the end Dotson knew that Jzou was one of the most reliable members of his squad.
Across from Jzou sat James, Dotson's second in command. He was possibly the fittest of his squad and one of Dotson's oldest friends. He was about as tall as Dotson and just as wide but about twice as strong. He was another one of Dotson's heavy weapon specialists and a damned reliable one. He usually carried the M19 SSM rocket launcher or one of the squads M73 SSW heavy machine guns.
Next to James sat Stephen, the team's demolitions specialist. He was an expert with any Human or Covenant explosive used on a battlefield. He was an odd guy, usually imitating or mocking people in some way. But Dotson knew Stephen well enough to know that the humor and irritating mannerisms were just for show, he wouldn't hesitate to defend his friends with his own life.
Opposite of Stephen sat Keira, the squad's medic. She was third in command of the Angels and Dotson's most trusted officer. To outsiders she seemed cold and detached or utterly crazy and unprofessional, in reality she worried about her comrades more than Dotson did. She wasn't one of the medical wimps who believed that killing something completely violated their purpose; she was one of the top shooters in Dotson's squad. People had often accused Dotson of having an affair with her, but that made things harder all around.
Next to Stephen sat Matt, the team's electronics expert. He was another old friend of Dotson's; the two of them went to kindergarten together. He was possibly the best electronics officer in the Marine Corps, having taken over the role of comms officer since the original one, Carney, was killed at Capelli. Matt could do pretty much anything with a battlefield electronics kit and the teams com gear. Dotson had made sure that Matt had also gotten some of the ONI's best computer insurgency software, technically against regs but Dotson had some friends high up in ONI.
At the rear of the truck sat Daniela, the team's recon officer. She was an outcast from her original unit for one of the most ridiculous reasons, she was a Goth. Dotson didn't mind it; she was an especially good recon officer. She rarely talked and wasn't really close to any one on the team, but she was the best at her job. She usually had problems with some of her superiors but she got along with Dotson fine, which was good, because the Angels needed a highly organized Chain of command.
Just being with his squad again made memories come flooding back for Dotson. One memory in particular, an event that he had tried hard to put out of his mind: Capelli.
It was very cold, too cold for comfort, Dotson thought as his feet crunched through the snows covering Capelli's plains. Dotson crept forward to the crest of the ridge the assault force was situated along, 200 of the Marine Corp's best, mainly members of the MEU, or Marine Expeditionary Unit, with the Angels leading them. Dotson felt proud to be leading such skilled soldiers. He moved his sniper rifle over the edge of the ridge with painstaking slowness. Good, he thought, only a few covenant shade turrets and about three Ghosts. The Covenant were positioned on the shores of a frozen pond with Dotson's ridge in front and a large hill behind them. The Covenant couldn't escape laterally, for steep cliffs rose hundreds of feet into the air on either side of them. Behind Dotson was a snow field a hundred yards long that tapered out to the ridgeline where Dotson's force was situated, the field was also flanked by high cliffs and the only exit for Dotson and his marines was a small canyon behind them at the opposite end of the field, but he doubted he would need to retreat. This was promising to be a milk run. But he remembered Sigma Octanus, an entire assault force at least twice the size of his own was wiped out on a "milk run". Dotson crawled back to where the Angels were situated.
"So what's it look like?" Daniela asked quietly, it struck Dotson as odd; it was the first thing she'd said since the assault force arrived at the drop zone.
"Not bad," He responded, "I'd guess about five shades and three ghosts, plus a couple squads of Elites and Jackals, and the usual couple dozen grunts as cannon fodder."
Dotson spoke a brief command into the radio and turned to the Angels. He tossed his head towards the Covenant position. The Angels nodded and crawled toward the edge of the ridge. Dotson glanced down the ridgeline to watch the marines advance up to the ridgeline and take up positions at the edge.
Dotson keyed the open frequency, "Alright Marines, Listen up. I make about five Shades and three Ghosts, and a few squads of Elites and Jackals, plus a few dozen little guys for cannon fodder. I want everyone with a jackhammer launcher to take out the two closest shades or ghosts, from then on in we're weapons loose people, pick your targets and kill them. Anything unusual shows up sound off. I don't want another Sigma Octanus out here. Got it?"
Dotson paused for breath, " To Positions, ready, FIRE!" He barked into the radio.
Less than a second after Dotson's command he heard the distinctive swoosh of a rocket launcher firing, about a dozen times over. Followed closely by the thunderous roar of nearly two hundred guns firing. He turned towards the Covenant positions in time to see a dozen Jackhammer rockets smash into the Shade turrets and Ghosts. Nearly two-dozen grunts were killed out right, their methane tanks rupturing to produce a series of brilliant fireballs that washed over the covenant lines. Dotson nodded with satisfaction at seeing the shattered and burning remains of the Covenants armor support along with the shattered and burning remains of the Covenant them selves. He raised his sniper rifle to his shoulder and began picking off targets as fast as he could see them. An Elite darted for cover then collapsed as a 14.5 mm armor piercing, fin stabilized, discarding sabot round from Dotson's sniper rifle punched through it's skull. A Grunt raised its Needler to begin firing on the marines; it died as an armor peircer passed through its skull, and the body of the Grunt next to it. Three for two, Dotson thought, so far so good. A Jackal was charging up it's Plasma Pistol, then died as a sniper rifle round passed through it's neck just below the skull, causing it's head to skip across the ground like a misshapen football.
Dotson noticed something move in his peripheral vision, as rounds from him and another sniper intersected on an Elite's skull, then he heard a shout over the radio.
"Heads up people, these sons-of-bitches buried themselves at the base of the ridge!"
Dotson tilted his aim downward to see a form pushing it self up from the snow at the base of the ridge. It was a Jackal. The hell? Dotson thought, I've never seen them do that before! The Jackal was carrying one of the Covenant sniper rifles that had started appearing just recently, usually carried by the Covenant's special forces. He put a bullet into the Jackal before it finished standing, and keyed the open frequency.
"Marines," he barked, " concentrate your fire on the Covies at the base of the ridge!"
He eyed the forces emerging from the snow, all gray-armored special ops; they had chosen one of the worst places to put them selves. The second and largest explosives launch of the battle commenced. Over a dozen Jackhammer rockets were launched towards the spec ops Covenant, along with shells from the Marines GL-93 grenade launcher, napalm and frag grenades, along with every standard weapon in the assault force's arsenal. The explosions ripped through the Covenant lines. The snow became coated with alien blood and body parts, fires from ruptured methane tanks and napalm grenades burned as the remains of the spec ops force retreated back to where the original force's survivors had positioned themselves.
They're retreating? Dotson thought, that's only happened once before and that was a..., the ground beneath Dotson's feet began to tremble as an ominous rumble filled the air, ...trap. Dotson's heart began to pound, he knew exactly what that sound was. He began to hear barks and growls, they seemed to be coming from the very air it's self. His mind automatically began determining the direction of the noise; it was coming from behind the hill that the Covenant were stationed in front of. He knew that sound, it was the menagerie of sounds that grunts make when they charge en masse. He felt fear begin to tear at his resolve. He used the scope on his sniper rifle to look up at the top of the hill. A tidal wave of Covenant crested the rise of the hill and began to thunder down into the valley, there were over a thousand of them. He heard another ominous sound, like wind, he looked upward to see dozens of bulbous balls of energy plunging down towards the Marines, they were Covenant plasma mortars. When they hit the ground they released tremendous amounts of plasma that was capable of melting the armor on a Scorpion tank, and the Marines in Dotson's assault force were like insects to a flamethrower for those things.
"Mortars!" he screamed into the radio as the mortars plowed into the Marines.
The mortars unleashed clouds of plasma into the Marine's ranks, burning marines into nothingness before they even had time to feel pain. Entire squads disappeared in brilliant flashes of plasma. Dotson saw a plasma mortar plowing through the air towards Daniela and Carney, Carney looked upward and threw himself over Daniela as the mortar struck the ground a few feet away. Dotson stared in horror as the plasma mortar's explosion burned away, he sprinted over towards where Carney and Daniela had been. Dotson arrived to find Carney's burning and charred body. He stared in horror at the places where the flesh was burned away to reveal carbonized bone. Dotson fought back the bile in his throat as he lifted Carney's body off Daniela as Carney's bones crumbled into ash. He sagged in relief when he found Daniela to be all right.
Her body was racked in coughs as she struggled into consciousness, "...Carney...?" she asked
"He...he's..." Dotson looked over at Carney's body, his faceplate was opened and his eyes stared sightlessly into the sky, "He's gone"
Daniela managed something between a sob and a cough then struggled to stand up. As she was standing up a needle careened in from the battle and embedded it self in her leg. She screamed as the needle exploded and then she collapsed sideways. Dotson swore and screamed for a medic. Keira turned her head towards Dotson and sprinted towards him, braving the plasma fire and needles. She gasped at Carney's body then rushed to save Daniela. She pulled a biofoam canister out of her rucksack and inserted the nozzle into Daniela's wound, then filled the wound with biofoam. She then turned towards Dotson.
"We need to get the fuck out of here now!" she screamed at him.
Dotson nodded and keyed the open frequency "Marines Retreat, fall back to evac point, I repeat, retreat God dammit!"
The remains of the assault force stopped firing on the Covenant and ran for the canyon. Dozens were cut down during the retreat. Jzou stopped just long enough to pick up Daniela in a fireman's carry and then sprinted off. The Angels began running towards the canyon and made it all right.
Dotson Ran as hard as he could towards the canyon, " We need a fucking air strike on the canyon!" he screamed into the radio at the air support.
"But sir," a pilot protested to Dotson, "that canyon is your only way out!"
"Don't question orders pilot!" Dotson screamed back at him, "Just bomb the shit out of that canyon when I give you the word!"
Dotson sprinted through the canyon as fast as he could, he waited until the bulk of the survivors were through the canyon and then gave the order to bomb the canyon.
"NOW!"
The three Albatross bombers swooped in for a run at the canyon, dozens of 2000 lbs JDAMs and three FAE or Fuel-Air Explosive Ground Pounders exploded up and down the canyon, causing a tremendous landslide that sealed the canyon. Dotson turned away from the canyon and began to run towards the evac point, he noticed marines getting into the Warthog LRVs that the assault force had brought with for transportation.
"Don't go for the Warthogs!" he screamed, but it was too late.
Dozens of Banshees, the Covenant's primary ground support craft, swooped towards the Warthogs unleashing a tremendous amount of fuel rods and plasma shots. The Marines in the Warthogs attempted to return fire but were mowed down like stalks of grain in front of a thresher by the plasma fire from the Banshees. Dotson heard screams over the air tactical net. He turned skyward to see all three of the albatross bombers plunging towards the ground in tremendous balls of flame, the Sky hawk fighters that had escorted the bombers were fighting a losing battle against the Banshees, more and more of them were falling from the sky in balls of fire. Dotson began running with the angles towards the evac point as fast and as hard as he could.
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