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Stranded: Chap 1: Section 1: 'Milk Run'
Posted By: Janglurevil7<janet.jonhson8@comcast.net>
Date: 1 May 2004, 1:35 AM


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Stranded
By Janglurevil7

Chapter 1: Stranded
Section 1: 'Milk Run'

2313 Hours, July 13, 2554 (Military Calendar)/
Diocletian System, UNSC Colony Tarsus

"Run Master Chief, hurry! You need to get to the Pelican NOW!" the Pelican pilot yelled at the Master Chief through the COM system.
The Master Chief bolted through the thick thorny underbrush of the swamp world of Tarsus. A volley of needler shots cut down a thorny fern. He turned around, and emptied a clip from one of his SMGs into a trio of pursuing Grunts. Even as he dropped the clip and put a new one in, another trio appeared. The Master Chief came to a clearing, and looked up.
The Pelican was lifting off, coming under fire from a pair of Hunters. He looked up and watched his last chance of getting off this desolate rock take off into space. Before it could make it, however, a fuel rod round impacted the starboard thrusters and the Pelican went spiraling into the ground a kilometer away.
The screeching of the Grunts strobed in the Chief's ear.
"I hear you, you little scaley bastards!" The Master Chief said. He walked backward, mowing down Grunts left and right. When he was satisfied that all the grunts were dead, he decided to take on the Hunters.
One charged for the Master Chief, and fired two consecutive fuel rod blasts, one high, one low. He rolled under the first, and jumped over the second. He landed, braced, and sent a kick flying into the exposed flesh under the Hunter's chin. Its head cocked back, and the Chief emptied a clip into the flesh. The second Hunter, angered by the death of its bond brother, tried to bring its shield down on the Chief's head. He rolled to the right, and ran behind the Hunter. He emptied a round into its exposed back, effectively killing it.

The Master Chief started walking in the general direction of where the Pelican had crashed. Perhaps he could salvage some supplies. He moved with deliberate caution, picking his way through the underbrush. He walked roughly three decameters towards the crash, when a black armored Elite dropped from a tree, warbled, and went for its plasma rifle.
The Chief lunged at the Elite, knocking its hand away. He elbowed the Elite in the head, and it fell down. The Chief leaped onto it, and pinned it to the ground. He started hammering on the Elite's helmet with the but of his SMGs, until the Elite's shields diminished. He then took the SMG, and fired a three round burst into its head, effectively relieving the Elite of its life.

The Master Chief started to look around the corpse. He pillaged from the body three plasma grenades, the Elite's plasma rifle, and two things he didn't expect to find. A Jackal shield generator, blue, and a plasma sword.
The Master Chief continues towards the downed Pelican. When he arrived, he found the Pelican nose down in the dirt. The cockpit window had shattered and the pilot's body was impaled through the stomach on a sharp piece of glass.
The Master Chief climbed into the shattered cockpit. He tried the COM channel to radio in to the Predator, the ship orbiting Tarsus, but to no avail. All the monitors and screens in the Pelican were shattered.

The Master Chief started to reflect on the first truly unlucky day of his life.
Things started to fall apart almost as soon as the Pelican had made it to the LZ. A contingent of Covenant appeared and started firing on the Pelican. It dumped the Chief off and started to circle the LZ, out of reach of Covenant weapon fire. The Chief immediately dealt with the Covenant forces, consisting of eight Jackals, ten Grunts, three black armored Spec Ops Elites, and a pair of Hunters.
The Master Chief had been instructed to gather weapon specs on some new Covenant weaponry. The UNSC ship Athena had intercepted a message about this new technology, and learned it was to be brought by a high ranking Elite to a rendezvous point where it could be taken to a Covenant development facility, via Banshee.
The Master Chief shot down the Banshee with a rocket, and took the weapon specifications from the dead Elite.
That's when the stuff really started to hit the proverbial fan.
The Chief radioed in to the Pelican and told the pilot to meet him at the RZ. As he emerged from a deep swamp, he bolted towards the Pelican. Then, from out of a close knit packet of thorny ferns, a team of eighteen Grunts emerged, accompanied by a pair of red armored Elites. The Chief fired his last rocket at the group, and tossed the launcher. He took out the twin SMGs he had been carrying, and started mopping up.
After he finished, he started running again. He saw the RZ point insight, and forgot to be cautious. A Jackal with an inactive shield walked gingerly out of the ferns, then yelled in surprise when it saw the Chief. He brought his foot up, and then brought his Achilles tendon down swiftly onto the Jackal's exposed head. The Jackal staggered backward, reeling from the mind shattering blow. The Master Chief fired a duo of shots from both SMGs, and ran on.
Then, a seemingly endless wave of assorted Covenant troops arrived. By the time he arrived to the rendezvous point, he only had three clips to use for his SMGs. He used up one round apiece against the Grunts and two Hunters.

Now, here he was, at the crash site of the only way off a giant swamp covered rock, with no way to contact the outside world.

And to think, the Admiral who had commissioned this mission to Hell, had called it a 'milk run'. Seems the milk has turned sour.





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