The Trade Off
Posted By: Horror<LazerP0inter@yahoo.com>
Date: 13 April 2004, 10:44 PM
Read/Post Comments
|
Authors Note: Due to writer's block for Mysteries, I am writing a single story.
Planet P2X989
5:30 PM
August 25, 2543
Private Larry A. Culleton
"I'm freezing my ass off here captain! Can I atleast get back to the ship and, I don't know, cure my friken frostbite?" Being posted as a guard hadn't been Larry's idea of the Marines when he had signed up. He had been especially disappointed when he found out he had been assigned to a cargo ship. Despite the fact he had gained the respect of the other men and his superiors the captain still seemed cold to him.
The radio cackled to life with the captain's voice "Damnit marine how many times have I said, stay off the radio unless it's a emergency! The Covenant have been tracking us and we need to Remain Hidden." He had stressed the last two words. Something seemed different about the captain though, something told Larry he should stop complaining. After all he did get to use a sniper rifle, something he considered a very high honor.
He looked the rifle up and down admiring it, then thought about the captain and sighed. "Ah well, just another day aboard, or um, outside the UNSC Barrister." As Larry peered down the scope of his rifle, lying on the frozen ground, he looked across the landscape when something caught his eyes. He increased the zoom to see what it was. A group of probably five Covenant ghosts were racing to his location. He fumbled in the cold to grab his radio, finally getting a grip on it and broadcasted a warning to the ship.
Captain Torelli
A technician ran up to Captain Torelli and told him they had received a transmission from Private Larry A. Culleton. "Damnit what does he want now I just told him he is to stay where he is and..." his voice trailed off as the technician started to play the message to the him.
"Incoming Covvie Ghosts!" A shot from a gun could be heard then the voice of Larry played again. "This is a warning to the UNSC Barrister, five or six ghosts are advancing on your position!" Two more shots ran out quickly followed by an odd noise the captain instantly recognized as a Ghost firing its weapons. The last thing head on the message was a human scream.
"DAMN! How long so we have?"
"I'd estimate three minutes sir."
"Load some marines into the two Warthogs we have and establish a connection with any other ship within radio range. The covenant must NOT get to the cargo we have." The technician ran off to do the captain's orders. Torelli found himself thinking about his cargo. Did the covenant know that his ship housed an entire colony of humans? As he stood on the bridge of his ship looking out the forward window he saw a Covenant Banshee, flying straight at him. It crashed through the window, killing some of his men then exploded killing the Captain and everyone else on the bridge.
Civilian Brian Renolds
Brian put his cards down and looked up from their makeshift poker table, a box. "What the hell was that explosion?" He demanded of his friends but they all looked as confused as he was. Brian grabbed a passing marine, "What's going on, we have a right to know if our lives are in danger!" The marine forcibly removed Brian's hands, handed him a MD6 pistol.
"Good luck" then without another word he left.
Brian looked at the gun highly confused but it soon dawned on him. "Oh shit! The Covenant are here, they're gonna kill us all man." He looked back at his friends who had already started packing up the chips cards and cash. "We've gotta DO something!" He tried to get his friends to stay but they wouldn't listen, after a few minutes they had left, leaving Brian at their poker table, which he kicked. It came to a stop by the wall of the ship and not a moment after it had stopped moving the wall exploded with a light blue glare. Brian looked through the hole that had been made and saw two warthogs in battle with ghosts. Then his vision of the battle was obscured by a gold-armored Elite that had walked through the hole that their plasma bomb had made. Brian and the elite both raised their weapons, but Brian was untrained and only shot twice, missing, before the Elite had charred Brian with his plasma rifle.
Major Tyler Anderson
"Goddamn! That bomb just blew a hole in the side of the ship!" The private sitting next to Tyler yelled over the roar of warthog engine, LAAG fire and the ghosts.
"Yea but we have our own problems at the moment!" He exclaimed as the warthog drove past the brunt shell of a ghost. He whipped the warthog to the side to collide with a ghost, which was launched into the air. The elite must have been afraid of heights because he jumped out, unfortunately for him he was already atleast twenty feet up. The fall injured him, the ghost flattened him. " Haha it don't get more funny then dat!" Tyler proclaimed. He look back up front at and before he could stop, the warthog crashed into a large rock, sending the Marines flying to their deaths.
Field Master Yosmee
His first kill on the ship disappointed Yosmee; the human had clearly not been a marine. Checking his shields he saw he hadn't been hit. He sighed and begun to shoot other humans. He highly enjoyed watching their futile attempts to escape from his soldiers that had been pouring into the ship from the plasma bomb hole. Atleast the one human he had killed had the guts to stand his ground and fight. As he surveyed the carnage with childlike happiness he noticed the sniper too late. A bullet lodged in his brain.
Private Juan Perez
Looking through the scope, Juan quickly assessed who was a good bastard to kill. Then he noticed that the Gold-armored elite. "Hmm he looks important." He fired the rifle and watched the elite slump over. He then fired three more rounds killing two more Elites and a Jackal. "Reload. Always feels like losing a friend when I shoot guns. I spend my time writing names on them then they just go out and kill." He chuckled at his joke. "Aw damn only four friends left." He emptied his sniper on a group of Elites and Grunts advancing on him, then to get the last of them he tossed a grenade into their midst. It exploded bringing the arm of a Grunt holding an activated plasma grenade to him. "Fucking shi..."
Above Planet P2X989, Aboard Covenant Cruiser Destruction
4:45 PM
August 26, 2543
Prophet Helios
The Humans were all dead.
|
