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Ekim, Part III: Evac
Posted By: Kiloh Ekim<www.g0d0fth3g33ks@hotmail.com>
Date: 13 May 2007, 2:39 am
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Ekim loaded as many weapons as he could on him. Two pistols on his left thigh, a magnum on his right, his MA5B AR on his back with a convenient strap, his M90 Shotgun gripped in his hands, and every grenade he could lay his hands on strapped on his belt and filling most of his pockets. Time for some overtime.
The fire can was long since dead and there was almost no gasoline left. So the entire group prepared and worked in the darkness of the night, with only the stars as their guides.
He got to work burning every body he could using a small amount of gasoline and a torch allowing Bennett to have some fun with the flamethrower. But still the night loomed on as if it would last forever and the only light that would help the duo see their task was the embers coming off of the previous bodies. Ekim crouched to douse a Flood with gasoline when out of the corner of his eye he saw movement.
It was not a figure moving, in fact, it was a black, wiggling thing in a shadowed corner of a destroyed building. Ekim cocked his M90 and kept his eyes locked on the small spot as he dropped a match on the body behind him which caught ablaze.
The area was instantly bathed in a red light revealing a green creature, less than a foot high, like a blob on top and with tentacles on its bottom. One glance could tell that it was Flood in origin. It was scurrying around in front of a small hole in the wall as if excited that it had been seen. Ekim pulled the trigger of his shotgun and, with a boom, the thing was gone. A green mist of spores replaced it along with bits of its tentacles.
"What's up?" Bennett said having arrived at Ekim's side. "I heard a shotgun fire."
Ekim opened his mouth to speak but looked to see the hole that lay behind the decaying matter suddenly erupted with hundreds of the parasites. They were just pouring out of one spot as fast as they could crawl out. He pulled the pin on a FRAG grenade and tossed it into the impending mob. It landed with a tink, tink, and Boom. But still the monsters kept coming.
"That's what. Run, get back to base." Ekim said cocking his shotgun. They turned and began to sprint as Flood began to come from more and more holes in the destroyed landscape. The parasites made a slight squishing sound as they moved and in seconds this sound grew unbearable. There were thousands of them covering the ground, and moving on all sides of buildings and all of them moved at once closing in right in on the two running humans.
There was no need to radio in because they were still in sight of the camp. But in a dead sprint, they still couldn't escape the wave of green death that pursued them. Ekim started yelling for help as they ran. Ekim glanced to his right to see Bennett running and firing his BR behind him. Then a look of pure of terror came into the eyes of Bennett as he dropped from eye level. His foot had caught in a pothole and he tripped. The last Ekim ever saw of Bennett was him disappearing into a mound of parasites.
Though it was only twelve seconds of running it seemed like a lifetime. Two heads popped above the barricade and raised weapons. The pops of the flood signaled that the Marines were picking off the ones on their tails. Ekim practically flew over the barricade as rounds from his allies flew past him every moment.
Pop, pop, pop. The flood numbered in the thousands while creating a carpet of parasites over the entire street. Ekim stood up, still shaken, and caught sight of an Elite standing on the edge of the firing line as the flood overcame the barricade in front of him. A green mass of tentacles jumped towards the Elite and began popping on his shield. Lucky him.
Ekim whipped out his AR and started scanning the street for enemies. At first he didn't see any but standing up he saw what everyone was firing at. There was a mass invasion of flood at the ground near them. He pointed his gun down and started firing off rounds downwards at an angle. He was bound to hit something.
But they didn't seem to slow or dwindle. It was like the last assault had been canceled to make way for this wave. The things just kept coming.
A couple of minutes in to the fighting Ekim jumped when an explosion went off a couple of meters to his right. An elite shrieked and charred corpse flew backwards. Lesson learned: Plasma grenade on a parasite jumping at you = dead Elite. No one paused to help. The death, the pounding of bullets, and every aspect of war became more evident to everyone over time. This was battle. You can pay your respects when the enemies are all dead but not until then. Click, click. Another empty clip.
"Reloading! Cover!" Ekim shouted to men standing nearest to him. He padded his pockets for extra clips and only felt two AR clips. Ekim moved his AR onto his back, pulled out two pistols, and started firing. Each shot emitted a small flare that illuminated the carpet of blobs that still pounced to kill.
Out of the corner of Ekim's eye, there stood Frickie calling for kills and yelling commands. One blob, just one, rose from the ranks to jump on his Frickie's head. He gripped the parasite less than a foot from his face. Its tentacles lashed back and forth cutting at his skin as he screamed.
As Ekim watched he raised a pistol and hesitated. There were few people he wanted to survive more than his leader. But watching his friend twist and try to shake off the Flood a thought dawned on him: there are always worse things than death. He sighted his pistol fired one shot hoping that the bullet didn't finding the friendly target.
The round echoed with a pop from the parasite's death and Frickie fell to the ground.
"Are you okay?" Ekim shouted over numerous guns being fired.
"Now would be—"he coughed up what appeared to be blood at this point" a very good time to retreat…" Frickie said, not looking up.
Ekim turned to an Elite firing madly on a pair of plasma rifles"What vehicles have you found?" The Elite growled and fired another blast, finishing his kill.
He turned to Ekim and uttered "There was one of your Warthogs with a broken engine and two Specters, mostly functional."
"Good." he shouted "Tether the 'hog between the Specters and make sure can get pulled correctly behind." Here Ekim moved away from the two Elites, who moved to do their duty, to the silhouettes of the two marines against the darkness of the night. Taber and Wandling were waving their ARs over the barricade firing and trying to kill anything they could.
"Move back" Ekim cried "Protect the wounded!" The two obeyed and seconds later the three were enclosed in a tight circle around their leader. Two clips will have to do, Ekim thought to himself, lowering his gaze from the wall, he turned to his guns.
When he finally looked back up his eyes met the sight of the parasites began to overrun the abandoned wall and crawled over it like a jungle gym. Ekim squeezed the trigger in sync with his allies and in seconds AR rounds filled through the air.
In minutes the tired group was running out of ammo while dancing around each other and crying for cover as they reload. Now they saw the true horror of this invasion: ammo supplies are always limited. This dawned on Ekim as his Assault Rifle clicked without ammo for the last time.
He hurled his gun at the approaching wave as he tore out his M90 Shotgun to start a follow-up. With each Boom from the shotgun the Flood were lit up for a moment as Ekim reassessed his targets. This seemed to last forever as combat fatigue wore on the group and night turned into hell.
The amount of parasites dwindled and eventually stopped. An eerie silence filled the air that was now surprisingly lacked the sound of gunfire. Ekim, Wandling, and Taber shoved new clips into their respective guns and watched for any sigh of flood. They will still be coming. It's only a matter of time.
Then, towards the back of the visible street, a new creature stumbled foreword. Like a blob with legs, Ekim thought when he noticed it. It was just like one of the now gone parasites but with the size of an elite and legs. In seconds it was joined by many more. Four or five of them were coming in the distance.
Ekim scooped up an abandoned BR and filled the nearest one with bursts. It fell face first onto the concrete and exploded. The ground gave a small quake and four small parasites rushed out of the place where the blob once stood. Then it hit him: these things were carriers.
Taber raised twin SMGs and dispatched the parasites in seconds. He released one of the guns from his hands and griped a FRAG. He pulled the pin and hurled it at the rest of the Carriers. They didn't last more than a few seconds. However, those seconds were spent flying through the air.
Ekim saw the grenade land nicely a few feet behind the group. But when the boom entered the air, he literally ducked backwards finishing his clip at the two that flew over the three humans and popped behind them.
These carriers began to fill the street beyond the barricade as combat forms jumped out of windows and off of rooftops and sprinted towards the barricade. It seemed everything wanted a piece of this fight.
Grenades flew through the air as the Flood were too primitive to use any real tactics, however, they kept moving with sudden, yet alarming attacks. The 'nades worked like a charm to dispatch a few in the crowd. Ekim pumped his Shotgun and kept firing at anything that moved while always keeping sight behind him, where he hoped his evacuation would arrive with the Elites.
He was dodging bullets and hoping the stim-packs he took every hour would help keep him on his toes. Ekim kept thinking there was no way to win but only a few paths he could take to postpone the end. His muscles felt like they were fighting him to stop moving and release his gun. Each shot took more and more effort to keep his gun steady and to keep pushing rounds out.
Like a call from an angel, an Elite's growl reminded them of what they were really stalling for. "Now! It is ready."
Ekim peered out of the corner of his eye to see three hunks of machine sitting in the street almost twenty meters away. Two of the vehicles, the ones in front, were glowing.
Ekim moved to Frickie's right arm and began to pull. Taber was pulling on the left and Wandling was firing an AR in each hand, barely gripping for the recoil. Ironically, Ekim was putting all his strength into moving toward a covenant vehicle mounted with Elites when every other combat experience before told him he should do the opposite.
The condition of the escape vehicles was terrible. The hog had no turret and neither specter had workable side seats. The specters and hog were riddled with bullet holes and plasma that seemed to burn through the armor.
Ekim helped toss Frickie on the hog's back platform. He seemed to be in trouble. Frickie had taken a plasma round to his arm, and the cuts on his face were not only deep, but also appeared to have become infected immediately from the spores.
The Flood were everywhere and covering everything. They were right after them and the combat forms were chasing them to the vehicles. The flood moved in an unorganized wave across the camp. From the masses bullets and plasma tore through the wind. The two lead vehicles started suddenly as soon as everyone had boarded.
With a lurch, everyone gripped to the seat they were in. Wandling and Ekim were in plasma turrets and Taber manned the 'hog's wheel while the Elites drove the specters in front. There were at least forty combat forms that sprinted after them and more joined as the convoy passed more buildings.
Ekim steadied his turret sights on the combat forms that chased the convoy. With an unearth-like wisp the gun emitted blue trails of light that streaked through the night. Each one of them were easy targets. He held down the alien trigger and focused on one at a time until it dropped and moved to the next. Many got back up later but couldn't run fast enough to catch the specters even though they were carrying the extra 'hog.
Before long, any pressures were all gone, either lost in the dust behind them or turned into confetti by one of the two turrets. Ekim glanced at the sky that had so long become dark to his eyes, and saw something new: the first rays of dawn streaking over the horizon. The trip continued for another five minutes until there was somewhat light once again.
As Ekim started to relax, he noticed something. Every few seconds there was something like a green haze covering the distance. The spores, he thought to himself, this is how they want to kill us. Terraforming.
Ekim's train of thought suddenly ended as the side of a building almost fifty meters in front of the convoy collapsed. Bricks and smoke filled the air as the convoy slowed to a stop. A familiar screech howled around the group as they realized what was happening.
"Ambush!" Taber screamed as a large amount of combat forms emerged from the smoke, firing their weapons.
Everyone ditched the turrets and driver's seats because they were out gunned and couldn't turn around. Ekim crouched behind the hog, which had wheeled in front.
Wandling moved Frickie to the back, as bullets whizzed through the air. One or two of the twenty of so that stood around the wreckage finally fell, but as they did, a Pelican approached and hovered over the wreckage.
It was just hovering over the rooftops and slowly began to spin around. The pelican was slightly damaged, as if it had little resistance in the battles. When its back was finally facing the pinned-down group, the small, almost unnoticeable turret mounted there, opened fire.
Ekim fired his Magnum at the menace when the bullets swept to a specter, but in a only second they were back at him. Ekim couldn't do as much as stick his head out from behind the metal barrier and he knew any second one of the clumsy bullets would be enough to detonate his 'hog by hitting the gas tank. Moments of fear and dread escaped through cheap blind shot that were guaranteed to hit nothing.
He glanced up at the Pelican and his eye caught on a small red beam, not unlike a laser sight, focused on the side of the craft from above. Ekim ducked when he began to see the spectacle.
A large red beam of light tore through the ship and caused the entire Pelican explode in a fiery death. It crashed in the wreckage of the destroyed building and annihilated any flood that still stood there.
Spinning around, Ekim saw that only two vehicles remained and both elites were gone. It seemed as if they had taken a specter and ran. Well, if they did, Ekim thought, they were dead already. No two soldiers can survive this place alone. But then, a dreaded thought reached out to him: they numbered only three active and one critically wounded.
Ekim looked around and wondered what in god's name happened to the attackers. Then, over the remaining rooftop on that side of the street, another, more badly damaged, Pelican flew down as silently as the first one and came within feet of lading in front of the hammered convoy. He stood his ground and raised his BR as this craft spun around.
The passenger area at the rear met the eyes of Ekim and the marines when it finally spun into view. Human guns clicked on both sides and barrels centered on each other's heads from only feet away. There was a moment of what can be described as an awkward silence with guns as people on both sides absorbed what was happening.
This drop ship was still in human hands and there were about ten marines in the craft in total. There was a Galilean class laser in the hands of one of the marines who put a hand out to his side to call off everyone else on the Pelican who still pointed a weapon at the survivors. The three standing human survivors lowered their weapons and so did those in the Pelican.
One marine hopped foreword out of the Pelican looked at Ekim and said "Sergeant Graves, at your service. Need a lift?"
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