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Pelican Charlie 223 by James Kinsella
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Pelican Charlie 223 Chapter One
Date: 29 April 2003, 11:04 PM
Pelican Charlie 223
Chapter One
1034 Hours, December 23, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Judgement assaulting Covenant Colony Repentance
"All pilots, scramble to your ships and await flight coordinates." Came the voice of Judgement's A.I., Soell. The flight officers broke up their game of euchre and ran to their various ships. Flight Officer Captain James Purcell ran as fast as he could to his ship, Charlie 223. He jumped inside and climbed the ladder into the cockpit. He ran the Pre-Flight checklist and entered the coordinates he received into the computer. He thought about the difficulties of his predecessors. When they had gone in for a landing all they had was a 70mm. chain gun, and some HE Anvil-II rockets. After the capture of the Covenant ship, Golden Apocalypse, all UNSC ships had received upgrades, the D77-TC 'Pelican' included. The troop carriers now had two of what was recognized as a medium yield anti-infantry plasma turret, also known as a 'Vulcan'. The ship also had sixteen HE Anvil-III's in its arsenal. The Anvil-III's had a plasma tip that melted through whatever it hit. All in all, Purcell was impressed with how the UNSC had adapted Covenant technology.
As the Marines of Fire Team Bravo loaded into the Pelican one yelled out, "Are you gonna' give us a smooth ride this time, Earendil?" This comment referred to their 'bumpy' ride down to the Covenant held planet, Wrath.
James responded with the only thing he could think of, "You didn't help, screaming back there the entire way down. As I recall the deck had to be scrubbed because someone forgot to go to the bathroom before they left." That seemed to shut him up, and Purcell closed the cargo bay ramp. As he looked at one of the gauges he saw the picture of his wife. He hadn't seen her since before the Covenant assaulted Earth. He wished he could go home, but he knew that with all the attacks on Covenant colonies planned, that wouldn't happen for a while. If the UNSC slowed down now, the Covenant might have a chance to regain their footing. That was something nobody wanted to have happen, so the advance across space continued.
Soell's voice over the comm. channels broke Earendil's reverie, "All dropships, release docking clamps and head to you targets. We're beginning the ground attack. Stay in line with the Daggers and Longswords and you'll be okay." This announcement was what everybody had been waiting for. James watched as the hangar bay doors opened, and looked down at the planet. Purcell was impressed with the spectrum of color the planet had. It looked like a beautiful place. He then thought of all the other beautiful places that had existed, but were now just balls of glass, lifeless and floating in space. With that thought he released docking clamps, and put the throttle on one-third.
As the fleet of Pelicans made their way towards the planet Earendil looked out of his window. The Covenant had put up a pitiful fight in defense of this planet. But lately that seemed to be all they had. Mainstream opinion said that this was because they were bolstering their homeworld's defense, but Purcell thought differently. He thought that the Covenant didn't have anything to fight with. His opinion was that they had exhausted their resources in their attempt to commit genocide on humanity.
The trouble with landing on a Covenant planet was just that simple. They actually had to land. When the Covenant had been attacking human colonies they would just glass the planet. Humans could do that too, but UNSC doctrine said that that was unacceptable, and Purcell agreed. If they fought the way the Devils fought, they would become the Devils. The problem with this was that they had to occupy an entire planet, and slowly remove the brainwashing that the Prophets had used to control the rest of the Covenant society. It was a long process, and while it was happening there were attacks on humans left and right. This meant that the process of taking a Covenant planet took about two weeks in total. After that the former Covenant populace was usually very docile, and almost no problems had occurred with 'liberated' planets. A few had even applied to the UNSC, in order to become colony worlds.
Once again Soell's voice interrupted James's thinking, "All Pelicans, you are ordered to break formation with the fighters, they are needed back up here." This statement shocked Purcell. Usually the fighters escorted Pelicans all the way. What was so important that they were needed with the fleet? James knew that the Seraphs would now inflict heavier losses, but he didn't understand why the fleet needed fighter support. He looked at his radar, and suddenly understood. It looked as if his prediction of the Covenant being out of resources was wrong. An entire new fleet had popped up, and the Covenant now outmatched the humans at least three to one. It looked as if the Assault of Repentance was going to take longer than predicted...
New Series, but I think it's a good start. Tell me what you think.
Pelican Charlie 223 Chapter Two
Date: 30 April 2003, 8:39 PM
Pelican Charlie 223
Chapter Two
1123 Hours, December 23, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Pelican Charlie 223 assaulting Covenant Colony Repentance
James watched as the last of their cover disappeared into the fray. He knew that most of those men and women had almost no chance. On the other hand, it didn't look like he had much of a chance either. He could only hope that somehow the fleet would hold out against the Covenant attack. If they lost the space battle the fight on the ground would hit the fan, fast. He suddenly realized that the boys in back knew nothing of the current predicament. He decided to keep it that way. If they went into this fight expecting to lose, they would.
Purcell kicked on the air brake and watched his speed bleed off. He put the throttle to full and redirected the engines to ninety degrees. It usually took everything the pelican had to break descent, and this time wouldn't be any easier. It was at this point that James saw the first anti-aircraft burst. It had no effect on him, but he saw what it did to Charlie 222. A gout of plasma hit the side of his thruster. Under normal circumstances this would barely hurt, but on an atmospheric entry, it meant death. The hole bled thrust, the thrust necessary to keep the ship level. The pelican started to spin, and James said a prayer, fully knowing that in a few seconds that ship would be a burning hunk of metal. He looked away.
The rest of the descent was bumpy, everybody took hits, but nobody else received the critical blows that Charlie 222 had. As they pulled in for landing, James lost contact with the fleet. The last he had heard the Covenant had been stopped, but they were regrouping, and had caused serious damage already. Purcell knew that the odds were now almost none that he would make it out alive.
The Marines had found out about the crisis. They still wanted to continue with the mission saying that it could help the next invasion force if the assault failed. As they came up on their target LZ Purcell dropped the cargo bay door and prepared for battle. Due to the battle in space, the pelicans wouldn't be leaving the troops there, but rather staying as aerial support for the mission. The entire point of this drop had been to take the city, Enlightenment. The city was a small one, only thirty thousand inhabitants, but that would be almost too much to handle without the backup planned for the assault.
As the troops slowly proceeded towards the city, a new threat arose. A wing of Banshees had decided that they didn't want us invading their city, and the attacked. The Vulcan turret on the pelican had no trouble dealing with the fighter, and the battle was over in moments. To James it seemed that the banshees had all been in decrepit condition, and he reasoned that maybe they were running low on resources as he had thought earlier. Maybe this was their version of the Battle of the Bulge, from ancient Earth history. He could only hope they fared as well as the Hundred-and-First Screaming Eagles.
1424 Hours, December 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Pelican Charlie 223 assaulting Covenant Colony Repentance
James knew they were faring well. The Marines had had minimal losses, and the Pelicans had proven capable of handling anything the Covenant threw at them. The only trouble was supplies. They had taken almost half of the city, and still found nothing resembling food. On top of that, moral was low. On most invasions, the Marines had backup to control the situation behind them. On this occasion they had no such backup, forcing them to execute a scorched-earth policy. Some of the combat troops had never seen battle before, and were now being forced to kill everything they saw. It was a harrowing experience, to say the least.
Purcell was cleaning out the cockpit of his pelican that night, when he saw something. The date on his navigation console said December Twenty-Fourth. That meant tomorrow was Christmas. Once again, James would miss his daughter's Christmas. Third time in a row, he thought to himself. This whole war was ripping everything anybody had ever known apart. He hoped that it was over soon, cause he didn't know how much more he could take.
It was at that precise moment that the Covenant chose to attack. The Banshees had flown in silently, and there were more of them than James had ever seen before. He jumped in the seat, lit the afterburners, and took off vertically right into the midst of the assault. Activating the Vulcan turret, he took three ships out immediately. Unfortunately that would barely even slow the attack down. All the Marines on the ground were taking cover, but from what Earendil could see, they wouldn't last long. He flew into the fray, determined to at least slow the attack. As he did this he prayed that someone would take care of his wife and daughter...
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