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Meyers' War: Part 2
Posted By: Nick Kang<digitai430@yahoo.com>
Date: 1 April 2005, 2:44 PM
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Meyers' War
Part 2
No sooner had Meyers thought than the tri-mounted plasma cannons let loose with an opening salvo. Pink bolts of plasma lanced from the weapons, spearing two Marines in seconds. The rest of the squad ran for cover, behind anything that would provide protection from the rain of plasma. The glowing bolts lit the streets with purple flashes, and the sound of return fire from battle rifles and submachine guns responded. A cold terror gripped Meyers, and for a moment he found himself unable to move. The mere sound of the cannons repeatedly discharging was enough to make even the most seasoned Helljumper think twice. He saw the Marine with the launcher fire off a single rocket before taking a blast of plasma directly in the chest, heard the man gurgle over the COM, and fell. The rocket had already locked, however, and it flew through the air, trailing yellow-orange fire, and knocked straight against the fore plasma cannon on the Phantom. The gun took the rocket, shuddered, and sent small pieces of charred metal into the air, before sprouting streams of blue-green gas and falling from the underbelly of the gunship. The destruction of the one cannon significantly reduced the amount of suppressing fire coming from the Covenant dropship, but not fast enough to save the doomed squad. A circular hatch opened in the underbelly of the ship, between the two aft guns, and a blue-green light so bright that Meyers had to cover his eyes shot down from it. In seconds a stream of Covenant warriors poured down from the drop hatch, bellowing war cries that speared even the high-pitched rumbling of the Phantom. The group was comprised of mainly Jackals and Brutes, but a few Drones also took to the air once dropped onto the ground.
Meyers had never had the chance to fight against Elites, Grunts, or Hunters. They had disappeared from the Covenant Hierarchy before he had enlisted.
Rifle fire was already heard before the enemies touched the ground, and several Jackals toppled from the gravitational stream of the gunship, but their blood made the journey smoothly down to the ground. The Brutes hit the street and immediately opened fire, their strange red-colored plasma rifles spewing bolts at a far greater rate than the normal blue rifles. Perhaps this was what the Brutes overlooked the most, for they were scampering for cover seconds after the opening salvo, their rifles belching streams of red gas from overheating. Countless amounts of Human rounds made their way to the scrambling gorillas, and two of them fell before the last stopped running, took several rounds in the chest, and dropped its rifle. Its mouth opened wide, and a horrible, deep shriek left its lips. The sound speared through Meyers' conscience and paralyzed him, before he realized what the alien was about to do. The he found it within himself to move. The Brute lowered itself on all fours, ready to charge, and then the quick, deafening crack of a .454 Casull round lit the air. The sound was so loud that Meyers momentarily opened his mouth to scream, but it was gone before he had the chance to. He looked up, just in time to see the Brute's headplate dent, puncture, and then the Ape's head simply exploded, showering the surrounding three feet with black blood turned chunky from mixing with the shattered brain. The headless body remained upright for a split second, and the collapsed onto its stomach, a puddle of ichor spreading from the stump of a neck.
The remaining squad turned, and saw Sergeant Jacobs, both of his hands wrapped around the handle of his smoking revolver.
From there, it was a short firefight devoid of Human casualties to clean up the remaining Jackals and Drones. The majority of them had taken cover on the opposite sides of the collapsible bunkers to let the Brutes fight it out, and had had little influence on the overall battle.
Once the squad had slain all of the Covenant, Sergeant Jacobs called for a grouping by the holographic generator. Meyers, as well as the remaining three other Marines, gathered around their CO. Two of them stood watch with their backs to the group and their COMs tuned into the briefing, while Meyers and the other Marine faced Jacobs. The weary Sergeant began to speak.
"Okay people, they caught us off-guard, but I'm sure we can pull through it. If the briefing of this invasion held up, then we know that Bravo Company landed somewhere around here." A map appeared on Meyers's uni-HUD, displaying a black-and-white overhead map of the surrounding area. A yellow square appeared and zeroed in on a position about seven kilometers west from the squad's current position, and then the image magnified so that the area inside the square took up the entire display. It was another town square, much larger than the one they were in now. A single blinking blue dot signaled Bravo Company's mobile tracking beacon. The squad shuffled nervously, looking at the distance between them and Bravo. It wasn't far for Marine standards, but in a Covenant city they could be slaughtered several dozen times over on the journey there. Meyers felt another sweat break on his forehead. Jacobs continued. "Our mission is to find them and go with them." If the tall Sergeant had any fear in his body, his voice didn't reveal it. "So, either Bravo Company is there and waiting, or they're dead, in which we'd still be able to police weapons and find possible survivors. In any event, we had better start walki—"
"Contact." One of the rear guard whispered over the comm., most likely to avoid detection by the hostiles. Meyers turned, and his eyes focused on several moving objects in the distance to the northward road. They seemed to be Jackals, because of their hunched over, striding gait. They hadn't activated their shields yet, nor had they spotted Meyers's squad.
"Hide." Sergeant Jacobs whispered back, and the squad crouched down and made their way behind the collapsible bunkers. Meyers paired up with Corporal Parelli, the squad sniper specialist, and together they hunched down behind one of the bunkers. Parelli stood up enough to fit his rifles barrel through the firing slot in the bunker, and peered through the scope. Meyers heard the click of the scope enhancing the image, and Parelli reported seconds later over the comm.
"They're Jackals, maybe five of 'em. Looks like a routine patrol. Evidently they haven't heard that we've already had a little party with this area."
Another Marine, Meyers recognized him as Private Bullows, spoke. "Well what good's a party to them if they aren't invited? It would be so un-neighborly to leave them out in the cold while we have all the fun."
"Why you're right, Bullows." Jacobs's voice took up the speaking role. "Parelli, make sure that our friends are invited. But try to make it quiet. We don't want my parents to wake up and see how trashed we've made the house."
Parelli grinned, gave his response, and screwed his silencer to the end of the S2 AM Sniper's Rifle. He sighted through the scope once again. "My pleasure."
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