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Ekim, Part I: Sunset
Posted By: Kiloh Ekim<www.g0d0fth3g33ks@hotmail.com>
Date: 13 May 2007, 2:02 am
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Thunder crashed and Marine Ekim's eyes snapped open, darting back and forth in front of him looking for a sign of danger with his AR in hand.
Nothing. Never was, he thought. If anyone ever saw anything in this war they were already dead. Always.
Best to keep moving, he thought as he let his eyes fall upon the grim prefaces of Old Mombassa's streets. The night seemed ever darker as he stood from his resting place along side the road; the images of what had happened only hours earlier began again flashing through his aching head.
There were only twelve marines before it happened. The rest deserted when they saw the ships. So many ships.
"I think they're gonna have a hard time glassing this hunk of rock", Frank had said. It was a shame he died first. He was such a nice guy.
The group decided to set up base camp on the top of a building five stories tall. In a building it would had been easy to be surrounded and out in the street it was too open. The building was perfect. It was the biggest in the area. The inside was gutted so it was a challenge to reach the peak but it did nicely once achieved. Strong frame: half a meter thick to be exact. You could see anything, to be sure, and hopes were up for the squadron. This was our defensive. Time to kill some Covenant.
A "No Signal" indicator blared in Kiloh's eyepiece against the dark, ruined city. In one swift move he tore the device off his ear and threw it to the ground. With a spark, the device shattered.
A crash sounded in the distance and dust rose from where a small building once was on the horizon. Then there was another crash and building. Right in a line aimed at them. Everyone seemed to move at the same time for their respective weapons. Frank practically leaped onto the M247 emplacement gun and MA5B AR's triggers were gripped.
Hall on the sniper and Moore with a SPN'KR. Everyone felt they were better with a certain gun during training. For Ekim this loyalty fell between the MA5B Assault Rifle and any model of a shotgun strapped to his back for close quarters.
A tense feel gripped the air as building fell that were closer and closer and still no indication of the source. Fear started to bind with the tension as the air sounded with crash after crash.
"It's Hunters!" Hall cried peering through his sniper scope. "They're checking the city for resistance, I think", he continued, "My god, they're sprinting. All of them. Demolishing buildings for infantry, probably, and moving in teams of… somewhere around thirty."
"They said in BASIC that they use those huge Scarab things for clearing cities, though" Moore remarked while shoving twin rickets into his launcher.
"Dunno" Hall said still glued to his scope "Maybe they're interested in being a little more careful about what they break this time. Damn Covies."
Less than thirty seconds after this was said the turret blazed into action and the sniper began a barrage aimed between the plates.
The sniper sounded a Bam, bam, Bam, bam audible only to those who could carefully tune out the turret's constant BRRRRRTT. Undeterred, the purple attackers still pounded foreword at remarkable speeds, only scattered with few dead. Suddenly an explosion and boom ended the turret's noise. A hunter arm cannon hit Frank straight through the wall.
Assault Rifles rained bullets on the enemy and Battle Rifles tried the same but neither made headway. Continuing to blaze away wasn't doing any good as more and more of their concrete barrier was blown away by the Hunter's arm cannons along with a couple of Marines. It was like the damage, the destruction, and the confusion didn't even exist to them. Then it dawned upon everyone in the group that there was no surviving this one.
The building moved with a lurch. Then another. The Hunters slammed into the base of concrete and stone with more effectiveness then an entire demolition team. MA5B were all firing at once down as more and more armored menaces slammed through the ground floor.
"Twenty-four rounds gone, seven kills, and a magnum with a grand total of one bullet. I regret nothing!" Hall called to me over the sounds of gunfire.
"No!" Kiloh called as Hall began to raise the magnum to his mouth. But suddenly he didn't need to. A slender blue beam shot across through his head from a stretching distance behind him to the right. I didn't need to be told what that meant. There were snipers and likely Elites and Brutes heading on the ground to clean them up after the fall. There was no hope.
The ground groaned beneath their feet as the building gave way. It collapsed straight down on itself. There was a loud, sickening noise and everything else was lost in blackness and dust.
Awakening from that was the single most painful experience Ekim has ever undergone. The thought pestered him at how in the hell the survived but no answer presented itself. Until he looked down, at least. He was situated nicely on top of a rather charred marine corpse. Frank. Well, that pays up for the twenty dollars he owed me, at least, Ekim thought, as he stood up, glancing around him.
The dust has long since settled revealing a field of corpses surrounded him. But not human. It was most definitely the Covenant. Brutes were scarred with plasma and elites torn with spiker rounds. Grunts, drones, hunters, and jackals seemed to be slaughtered by everything in between.
Nothing moved. Collecting ammo and testing his radio, Ekim found that all that came in was a stark "No Signal". A glance over the battlefield unveiled a sunset the like that only the East African Procreate can produce.
In minutes it would be dark, Ekim thought, and if I can just find a human camp the morning might come a little sooner.
Two hours later, walking away from the spot where his eyepiece lay broken, the fatigue started to hit him harder than the original fall. AR on back and shotgun in hand, Ekim worked his way down the Old Mombassa streets. His training had taught him to check every major room he passed. It seemed like a bad habit at this point but it had saved him once or twice in training. So chances are he might get lucky and spot an ambush from one of the dark rooms that lined the street. The hard and unnerving work might just pay off after all, he thought to himself.
Still, the darkness encroached from every corner and every few moments something seemed to move but was gone when the flashlight's beam set upon it. There was something there. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he was at someone else's mercy and at any moment their-- it's… whatever's patience might run out and he would follow the same fate as his squad.
There had been no corpses for the last two miles or so that he had walked. Just blood trails. They were shaped like the dead had fought, died, been dragged a ways and got back up. Chilling thoughts rasped his mind as he started to desperately need sleep and medical attention. A precursory glance to the street finally made his day. Light in the street, just around a curve.
His heart racing, Ekim sprinted towards the light. Light means electricity or fire. He never saw any smoke against the sky so this fire was no accident. Just as he crossed the threshold of the doorway, he was grabbed.
A large, inhuman hand gripped his throat stifling his air. The three-fingered hand gripped even more tightly and lifted him into the air. His legs were kicking and hands prying at the creature's grip to no avail as his AR fell to the ground. Gasping for air, he twisted his head around to look straight into the black eyes of an elite. As the blood rushed to his head Ekim could hear his own heartbeat. It was pounding.
"Friend or foe?" the creature growled. Ekim furiously nodded his head, without thinking of either one. The monstrous elite threw him like a rag doll into a wall across the street with a crash.
He roared as he reached to his thigh and gripped a small metal handle. In one movement- one instant later the elite was holding a shining bade made of a solid white-blue light. He pulled back his forearm while moving over the last few feet to his target that still gasped for breath.
"Friend!" Ekim sputtered, holding one hand out to stop the attacker in what he hoped was a universal plea for mercy. A gloved hand moved in front of the chest of the attacker, and with a grunt and a peeved glare he moved away from the scene drawing back in his sword.
"Ya ok?" a voice said from above offering a hand to help Ekim stand. He stood and looked at the camp he had arrived at as the man continued. There was a trashcan fire in the center and a circle of barricades made out of wreckage from the war-destroyed city surrounding all sides. It was the only thing that could be seen clearly in the darkness with only a handful of ODSTs and Elites numbering less than fifteen.
"Where's the rest of your platoon? You a deserter?" he demanded.
Ekim looked at glared strangely at him telling all he needed to know but spoke anyway.
"They're all dead. I'm the only one left. We were right in the path of a full assault a couple of miles back."
"That's too bad. We could use some more men. Glad you made it out, though. The name's Frickie. We encountered this Elite group in a firefight with some Brutes some twenty miles north while moving in a couple of 'hogs. We intervened, trying not to ask questions but we got hit hard by a phantom and pinned down with them."
Pulling off his helmet, Ekim said "So you just kissed and made up?"
"We had to try to escape and together were the only way we could survive. And besides, they said there was something else here, far more dangerous than the Prophets. They call it 'the parasite.'" Frickie remarked "They probably would have turned on us later if there wasn't a phantom still at our tails."
"It that phantom dead, then?"
"No. But it stopped pursuing and that's good enough for us. Maybe someone else got it. No idea what really could take down that thing around here. But I guess it doesn't matter. We're still alive."
It was true. All communication was out. There was no way to contact command for support. You were lucky if you were alive and if you managed to make it out a firefight without a bullet in you, then you didn't ask why. Asking why has a habit of killing people.
The group slept in shifts and after hearing of his ordeal Ekim was granted first shift to sleep. After all, he needed it, but just before falling asleep he remembered the old Earth phrase "You'll feel it the morning" and suddenly regretted falling asleep.
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