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Assault by Joe Ehret



Assault Part 1: Ambushed
Date: 20 March 2004, 3:15 AM

"Contacts spotted four Elites dead ahead!" Said Linda over the Spartan's COM channel.
This was followed by four cracks as Linda put a 14.5mm bullet in each of the Elites from her S2-AM Sniper Rifle.
"Four down" She instantly reported.
"Nice shot. The Master Chief said.
How the hell does she do that? The Chief wondered. He quickly dismissed the thought getting sidetracked was a good way of getting himself shot.
"Uh, Chief is that what we're looking for?" Fred asked, and pointed to a squat and vaguely arachnid structure that loomed ahead.
Instantly, images of the building on Halo where he had discovered the Flood and Pvt. Jenkins' mission log flashed through his mind.
"Chief is something wrong?" Linda asked.
"No, nothings wrong, what could be wrong we're about to enter a Covenant owned structure, retrieve some sort of data crystal, level it, without getting shot." The Chief said with more than a hint of sarcasm, which he instantly regretted.
The Chief kept going, he was at point to his left and about a yard back was Linda, to his right and two yards back was Kelly, and bringing up the rear was Fred. They trudged through the ankle deep snow. The Chief zoomed in on an object it looked like a boulder, as he was going to un-zoom the boulder moved.
"Hunters, twelve o'clock. Linda can you hit them?" the Chief asked.
Instead of a response from Linda, her S2-AM cracked off two rounds.
"Shit, the second hunter dodged my shot." Linda said, her voice filled with disgust.
A blast echoed through the valley and a sickly green pulse jumped at them. The Spartans dodged and the pulse detonated harmlessly yards away from any Spartan.
"Charge 'em and bring 'em down" Yelled the Chief.
It took the Spartans four seconds to sprint the distance to the Hunter. Then all hell broke loose as Grunts, Jackals, and a hand full of Elites came pouring out of the rocks.
"Shit," the Chief Growled "Open fire Spartans."
He didn't need to issue the order they had already started firing. The Spartans peppered the aliens with sheets of armor piercing rounds. The alien's plasma weapons responded with the characteristic whine followed by deadly super-heated plasma lashing out at them.
"Frag 'em" The Chief yelled.
He pulled the pin from his frag and tossed it into the alien's formation. Five seconds later four blasts of thunder ripped through the night deafening the Spartans for a second.
"Hold your fire" The Chief barked.
They did so. Directly in front of them roughly sixty Covenant corpses littered a space of two yards in between two rocks.
"Chief, I really wish they would just stop attacking us." Kelly growled.
He agreed, but the only reason that had caught them off guard was pure sloppiness.
As if he had read his mind Fred whispered over the COM, "That was sloppy, which is the reason we weren't ready for that, we're lucky we still have our heads"
Everybody flashed their acknowledgement lights on Fred's heads up display.
"Anybody hurt" Questioned Kelly.
No one responded.
"Let's keep it moving" The MC barked "Only half mile to the structure."
Ten minutes later they found the entrance.
"Hold position, Linda take out the sentries." Said John, her acknowledgement light winked on.
Four cracks split the silence and four Elite sentry dropped to the ground, dead.
"Let's move out Spartans" commanded the MC.
The sprinted to the door, it didn't open.
"What it isn't automatic" Questioned Fred.
"Doubtful and here we are with nothing to break open the door with." grumbled Kelly.
"Not quite nothing" Fred said and gave a short laugh.
He hoisted three Lotus anti-tank mines.
"Place it," ordered the MC, Fred did, "Clear the area."
Three resounding wumps echoed through the valley and shook the Master Chief to his teeth.
"Open sesami" cracked Fred.
The Chief slung his Battle Rifle and unlimbered his dual silenced Sub Machine Guns as did Fred, Kelly, and Linda. He heard Grunts barking and grunting in a room a yard ahead on the left side of the hall way. He peaked in and fired four silenced bursts at the Grunts they all went down. Apparently the room was being monitored because just then dozens of Covenant troops poured out of the rooms weapons ready and pointed at the Spartans.
One of the Elites a red armored veteran spoke in obvious discomfort, "Give up and we will make your death relatively painless."
The Chief's response to the Elite was to pound it with twenty rounds of ammunition. The rest of the Spartans followed suit and the narrow hallways was alive with noise.
"Down in front" squealed a Grunt and hurled a plasma grenade right at the Chief's head.



Assault Part 2: Into the fire
Date: 22 March 2004, 1:16 PM

The Chief only had a second to react; he grabbed an unprimed frag and threw it at the plasma grenade. It collided with the plasma grenade sending it into the Covenant formation they both detonated killing a dozen Covenant soldiers and wounding a handful more.
After the last Covenant soldier fell the Chief yelled over the COM "Cease fire!"
Just then four Brutes rounded the gray-ish hallway.
The Chief unlimbered his M90 Shotgun and said "Scratch that order and blow 'em to hell."
Before they could do any thing Linda put a 14.5mm bullet in the first Brute. It fell straight to the floor. The other three Brutes roared in anger lifted the grenade launcher and fired.
The Chief yelled "Spartans scatter!"
They instantly jumped into rooms on either side of the hallway. The grenades detonated washing over The Chief's shields and then he rolled back into the hall. He fired at the charging Brute, the first shot barely slowed it, the second put it off balance and the third brought it down. The Brutes leveled their grenade launchers and tried to find an angle to fire without hitting the other Brute engaging the human.
The Brute fell to the floor, and the other two charged one fired its launcher, the grenade hit the wall next to the Chief and set him flying, he landed...three yards away. The Chief's heard a shrill alarm and saw his shields were almost completely gone.
"Fire in the hole" grunted the Chief over the COM system. He threw a plasma grenade at one of the Brutes; it stuck to its chest plate and exploded in a flash of blue killing it instantly. The other one leapt forward, grabbed the Chief by the throat, and slammed him against a wall. He had fought Brutes hand-to-hand before and knew it was virtually impossible to win. His vision blurred, he blinked trying to clear it. He heard a crack and blood smeared across his visor further blurring his vision. The Brute dropped to the ground, a bullet hole in its head. The Chief slumped to the floor gasping for air. He wiped his visor clean of the blood.
"Thanks" John gasped and slowly got to his feet.
They walked down the hallway and turned right the pressure doors slid open. At first glance the Master Chief didn't see anything, but then some of the shadows moved.
"Contacts," the Chief shouted "Invisible Elites two o'clock."
The Chief pulled out his sub machine guns and fired all sixty rounds into a corner. Three Elites appeared grabbed their mid section and fell to the floor. The Chief felt plasma impact against his left shoulder. He reloaded, pivoted and fired. The firefight was on. He heard a roar and turned, a plasma sword was suspended in mid air. It charged at him The Chief didn't have time to react. The blade sliced through the air hitting John, immediately his shields gave and disappeared. He rolled to the right and let twenty one rounds fly at the area bellow the sword, the Elite grunted, appeared, and hit the floor. John put his back against the wall in a corner and let his shields recharge. There was a shimmer in the air in front. He sprung forward and slammed both fisted guns onto the shimmer it appeared jumped back and leveled its plasma rifle. Thirteen rounds cut this action short.
"Scan the area for anymore Invisible Elites," John mumbled "anybody see one".
No acknowledgment lights winked.
"Ok, let's move out" commanded the Master Chief.
They passed through another set of pressure doors. John checked his map, they were about to enter a large room. He holstered his sub machine guns, and un-slung his Battle Rifle. Inside there was hundreds off Covenant soldiers scattered around the room.
There were two Jackals, an Elite, and a Grunt who had raised its over charged plasma pistol and squeaked "He, he, he me kill you." The Spartans moved out of the way as the Grunt let off the sickly green pulse. The Spartans rolled out of the way and fired. A Black Elite warbled something the Master Chief's translation software could catch and all of the Covenant warriors turn and yelled.
"Shit" grumbled the Master Chief "Let 'em have it."
The Spartans knocked back their front line with a hail of armor piercing rounds. Then two Hunters rumbled slowly into the Chief's view.
"Watch it Hunters," John warned "Linda take 'em out, Delta Formation around her now!"
Dual cracks rang out and both Hunters fell down.
"Hunters neutralized Joh... ," Just then Linda took a charged plasma bolt in the face she fell backwards to the floor and didn't get up.


In another week or less I'll have part three so I hope you enjoy this and read the next one.



Assault Part 3: What no Pelican?!
Date: 31 March 2004, 4:28 PM

Linda's shields had been hit before that and were almost gone so the armor took most of it.
"Shi, Linda's down," Said Fred.
Just as Fred spoke Linda slowly picked herself off the ground and said "It's ok, I'm fine."
John seriously doubted it, but let her get up and back in the firefight. By this time the four Spartans were back peddling firing sheets of armor piercing rounds at the slowly advancing Covenant. John quickly slung his Battle Rifle and got his M90 shotgun and put four eight gauge shotgun shells into the nearest patch of Elites. Some Grunt squeaked at the dead Elite rolling toward them. The Chief put a shell into a charging Jackal which was sent flying backwards bumping into and knocking down and handful of Covenant soldiers.
"Fire in the hole," bellowed John and five seconds later four explosions roared through the narrow hallway and ripped apart the Covenant troops. The next thirty seconds were spent pushing back through the hallway and killing off the five or six Covenant stragglers.
"Spartans hold," the Chief said "scan the area for any Covenant including Invisible Elites at guard 'cause this is the last room before the control room."
They did so and only found three Grunts. The pressure door didn't open when the Master Chief walked up to it.
"Damn," the Chief swore "this door won't open without authorization and we don't have enough explosives to spare on it. Kelly go get an Elite uh, Gold or Black, preferably with a hand."
"Got it John" she responded and dashed off.
Thirty seconds later Kelly came back with a dead Gold Elite on her shoulder, she dropped him to the floor in front of the Chief. He picked it up and put its hand on the DNA scanner. There was a zip and a pop and the door slid open. John dropped the Elites bullet riddled corpse and leveled his rifle to the entrance, the only inhabitants were two engineers at the desk typing on the keypad. They stopped their typing, squawked at John and the other Spartans and floated away. John typed in the command the ONI officer had given him back on the Marauder where he was briefed. Their was odd squeaking and a pop as a purple semi-clear disk the size of John's thumbnail slid out of the keyboard. Against hundreds of different regulations John copied and downloaded the files into his suits memory storage area. He wanted to know what the ONI thought was on this disk that was so important that only a dozen or so people were told about this op. He put the crystal in his belt pouch and walked to the next pressure door. It slid open and inside was what appeared to a brig. Inside were twelve holding cells four of them holding ODST or Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.
"Man are we glad to see you we were in serious shit before you got here," grunted one of them he read as Cop. Sam Ryan.
The Chief nodded, jogged up the ramp and push the button to drop the force fields trapping the ODSTs.
"Thank God you got here they were going to execute us for sport in three ho...," cried Pvt. Jameson.
The Chief cut him off, "Lock and load, sprint down that hallway there are hundreds of dead Covenant I'm sure they won't mine letting you borrow their weapons."
John tossed the Corporal a Plasma Rifle and five grenades.
"Damn am I glad your on my side," he sighed.
One came back with a Plasma Rifle, one with a Needler and one with two Plasma Pistols.
"Now, let's get out of this hellhole and to a Pelican," shouted one ODST, Pvt. Chris Daniels
"Sorry, you're a snag, we had everything planned out and you guys are just in the way, but since you're here the plan is ," said John "we were supposed to get in, which we did, kill 80% of the Covenant, which we did, get a data crystal, which we did, level the place, have Will another Spartan pick us up in a stolen Covenant dropship, slip past dozens of Covenant Destroyers and Cruisers on patrol and get back to the Marauder all without taking any casualties."
"Holy hell I'm not sure which is worst that or execution." Pvt. Daniels grumbled.
"Stow it Marine remember you're under my command here," Growled the Master Chief, immediately silencing the Marine. "Uh, Spartans we nave a snag."
"What now," Linda snapped.
"Four ODSTs are here in the brig. All are armed, but still liabilities, especially mentally," responded an irritated Master Chief.
Three acknowledgment lights winked on his HUD.
"Fred, set the charges, Kelly stay with him then me us," John commanded "Linda and I will get the ODSTs to the LZ."
Three acknowledgment lights winked on, and the Spartans snapped to there duties.
"Delta formation around Linda, now" said John over the COM.
They exited the building coming across only four Grunts and a Jackal.
When they exited the building they hiked half a mile when the Chief said, "This is the LZ hold position until Fred and Kelly get out."
Two minutes later two blips appear on his motion sensors, they were identified as Fred and Kelly, four seconds later they were right next to the Master Chief.
"Mission accomplished John, charges set," said Kelly.
"Will what's your ETA," questioned John.
Three seconds later a response came from Will, "One minute John everything good down there?"
"Yeah, we found four captured ODSTs from the structure got them out and are ready to blow the place sky high," responded John.
Just then a dropship swooped into viewed. One Marine fired, John slammed his hand onto the ODST's Plasma Rifle, knocking it to the ground.
Will's voice crackled over the COM "Hold your damn fire it's me."
"Damn, sorry about that," said Cop. Ryan.
The dropship landed and opened it's carrier section.
"Load up, double time it people," Bellowed John, "Will get us the hell out of here."



Assauly Part 4: Stranded
Date: 3 April 2004, 12:34 PM

"Ready for lif...,"started Will when three thuds echoed through the valley and the dropship shook. "Aw hell, what hit us?"
"Ground fire, possibly a Fuel Rod Gun," responded Fred just as another series of thuds hit them. The purple colored metal hull in front of the Chief dented inwards and started to break away.
"Will get us the hell away from the plasma fire, it's burning through the hull," commanded the Master Chief.
"I'm trying but this hunk of junk isn't maneuvering very well, damn things defective," Will said and cursed the Covenant bastard who put this together wrong.
There was a purple and green glow through the tear in the hull in front of John just as another six bolts of plasma impacted and smeared across the hull. Just then the ship's nose was thrown to the left as a series of plasma impacts scorched the dropship.
"Damn it, Chief we're going down," grunted Will who was trying to regain control of the dropship.
The Chief shouted, "Brace for impact!"
There was sputtering, thuds, sparks, a bone shattering impact and then darkness. Slowly John blinked trying to clear his vision. His shield bar was empty, he waited and let it recharge. He tried to get up, but hit his head on the top of the dropship. Everything flooded back to him, they mission, the ambush... the impact. The ambush, the Covenant will search the wreckage... their wreckage and kill all of the survivors.
"Kelly, Will, Fred, Linda are you alright," four acknowledgment lights winked on, "We have to get the hell away from the dropship the Covenant will search the wreckage."
"But what about the ODSTs," countered Will.
"I seriously doubt they survived the crash," the Chief responded grimly, "Now let's set up an ambush for our 'friends'."
John spread out the mangled bodies of the dead ODSTs around the crash site and set up half a dozen Lotus anti tank mines that Will had brought and set them for remote detonation, he took the remote. Linda set her S2 AM sniper rifle up in the woods to the right behind a boulder. Will got his M19 SSM rocket launcher on the other side of the path in between two trees. John, Kelly, and Fred set themselves up in a semi circle behind the crash site, Battle Rifles at ready. First seven Grunts in orange armor wielding Plasma Pistols charge forward sniff around then wave forward four Elites, three red and one gold all with Plasma Rifles except for the gold one who had a Plasma Sword.
"See you in hell," the Chief mumbled to himself and detonated the mines.
All eleven soldiers were killed in an explosion that rattled the Master Chief inside his armor. Then two dozen Covenant soldiers thirteen Grunts, four Jackals, five Elites, and two Hunters. "Damn it", John swore, "Will take out those Hunters, everyone else... give our 'friends' a warm welcome."
Armor piercing and high explosive rounds darted towards the Covenant search party. The Hunters exploded in a ball of destruction as a 102mm high explosive rocket impacted against their armor killing the Jackal who had the misfortune of standing too close to the walking tan. Ten seconds later their was nothing but Covenant corpses littering the dropship.
"We better get going it's a long walk home," the Chief said his voice filled with spite, "This planet is all but the Covenant's, there are only a few little villages undiscovered and I don't think they have a spare Pelican. Wait Will, is the Marauder still in orbit?"
"Captain Karleson said he'd stay for another two hours after I left which was 2100 and it's now 2155 so yeah," Will responded.
"Captain Karleson, Captain Karleson this is Master Chief Spartan-117, if you're still in orbit respond," said the Chief.
A deep husky voice responded "Glad to here from you Master Chief is everything alright?"
"No sir, our dropship got shot down before we could up too far, no Spartan casualties, but the four ODSTs we found are KIA. Can you send down a Pelican for us? You don't even need to stay on station if it has a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine sir," asked the Chief in a polite manner.
"We have your position and are getting a pilot for the Pelican right now Chief," he paused then added "good luck."
"Thank you Captain," John said gratefully, "I know you all heard that so let's hold position 'till it gets here."
"Hell yeah," shouted Fred.
A stick snapped followed by a Grunt falling to the ground over a booby trap they set up. He heard it barking swears in its native tongue. Four black-ops Elites and two dozen Grunts with Needlers, Plasma Rifles, and some Grunts had Fuel Rod Guns, came into view in front of John. Then the same number came behind them and on both sides.
"Why the hell would they send this many troops to investigate a crash." John thought, then remembered the search team they eliminated.
"What are we going to do about this," questioned Linda.
"Hold on Linda," mumbled The Master Chief, "Echo 371, what's your ETA?"
"Ten or fifteen minutes Master Chief," said a woman's voice.
"Shit," the Chief cursed under his breath "Well Linda we're going to do the one thing we're best at... kill every last one of the Covenant bastards."





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