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Chapter 14

1100 Hours, August 30th, 2549 (Military Calendar) /
Coron System, Corona III, Theater
Of Operations

The bucking and swaying of the small, sea-bound craft was making Sarah queasy, and she had to grab hold of Walker to stop herself from falling over. She felt vomit rising inside, but forced herself to hold it down. The last thing Walker probably wanted was for her to puke all over him. She gripped her shotgun tighter, pointing the barrel down at the floor. Taking a deep breath, she looked round for Manny. He stood three people back, on the other side of the boat from her, his eyes closed as if he were in deep thought.

But she knew that he was probably feeling just as sick as she was. The small craft was cramped and stuffy, and the fact that it was completely enclosed didn't help either. He had overcome his fear of drop ship launches after the very first mission, but she knew that was the face he pulled when he was nervous about something. And right now, Sarah didn't know whether it comforted her or worried her. Manny had always been the group instinct, and whenever they were on a mission, or going into battle, the squad always turned to Manny whenever they felt like something was wrong.

And right now, it was clear that he was uneasy about something, be it seasickness or something else. The ship dipped suddenly, making Sarah grab onto Walker's backpack. He overbalanced and fell back onto her, squashing her between his pack and Grace, and somehow having the other woman's sniper rifle sticking in her ass. With some basic manoeuvring and lots of swearing and cursing, all three were back to upright positions. But in spite of it all, Sarah still felt nauseous.

They had been dropped in the sea by Pelicans over ten minutes ago, and were told it was only a mile or so offshore. But these lightweight speedboats could reach velocities of up to a hundred and fifty kilometres per hour and if her calculations were correct, they should have been there nine minutes ago.
Suddenly, as if her thoughts were answered, the dull green light snapped off. A split second later, a dull red hue filled the cabin. And Raynes' booming voice filled her ears.

"Alright people, we'll be landing in a matter of minutes. I want weapons checked and ready. It's going to be messy when we jump outta here!" Although Sarah couldn't see Raynes, his voice reassured her. She twisted the shotgun in her grip, checking the safety was off and the barrel was clear. She pumped it once, then put the safety back on.

The squad waited in silence, the only noise being the water as it sloshed against the side of the boat. Then it came. A loud horn sounded throughout the small space, making half the squad flinch. Then the doors at the front of the boat blew open, spilling sunlight into the cabin. Sarah willed her legs to move, and ran as quickly as they allowed her to go. As she exited behind Walker, she nearly tripped over a prone form. She glanced down quickly and saw the twisted face of Connor, one of the Jackhammer loaders.

He writhed in pain on the sand, blood pouring from a wound in his leg. But before Sarah could stop to help him, she was forced all the way out of the boat by an explosion and into the sunlight. It seemed like all hell had broken loose. No sooner had her feet touched the ground did the sound of utter chaos reach her ears. The beach on which she stood sloped upwards for a hundred metres, where camped along the sea wall were numerous Covenant gun emplacements, each one firing deadly plasma down onto the boats. The turret of a Covenant tank was also visible, firing every seven or eight seconds, taking massive chunks out of the ground in front of it.

Twenty metres or so down from them were infantry placements that the Covenant themselves had set up. They were basically metallic tents that had a large slit in them so they could fire out of them and be protected at the same time. Sarah didn't know how many was in each tent, but there seemed to be a constant barrage of plasma and purple needles coming from each one. Just beyond the tents, and not even fifty metres away from where the marines had landed was a giant trench, where occasionally a Grunt would pop its head up and launch a grenade as far as it could.

It was like Normandy all over again.
She looked to her left and then to her right as she hurried to tuck in behind a large cover-shield that had been set up by an engineer. Plasma bolts pounded against it, scorching the metal, and making it hot to touch, and needles ricocheted off of it like hailstones.
The length of the shoreline was littered with the sea-craft that had transported the marines onto the beach. Many had been completely destroyed by enemy fire, and at least three were on fire, their passengers flinging themselves out of them, trying to put the flames out that engulfed them. Dead bodies littered the beach, blood staining the sand beneath them.

Sarah tried to gather up her thoughts, trying to hear passed the carnage, to see her fellow comrades. Something heavy landed on her back and she panicked for a split second before she realised it was Manny. Blood streaked his face and his helmet was missing, but other than that he seemed fine.

"I TOLD YOU I HAD A FUNNY FEELING ABOUT THIS!" he yelled. Without his helmet, he couldn't talk to anyone without being face-to-face with them, and with all the noise around them, even that would be hard. "WHERE'S THE SARGE?!" he looked around, puzzled.
Sarah shook her head, and mouthed 'I don't know'. The earth shook as the Covenant tank let off another round.

"WE NEED TO TAKE OUT THAT TANK!" Manny yelled back. His head darted backwards and forwards, then he waved at someone out of Sarah's line of sight. A moment later, Cochran, Walker, Harris and Fincher were all huddled next to them, trying to get every inch of their bodies as far from the enemy fire as possible.

"WHERE'S RAYNES?" Manny yelled again, aiming his voice at Walker. Walker motioned that he couldn't hear a thing and rummaged in his bag for a minute. A look of annoyance spread across Manny's face, but turned into a smile when Walker handed him a com-set. He strapped it to his head and tuned into the right frequency. "Any more shouting and I'd have lost my voice! Where's Raynes? I couldn't get him on the radio."

"We don't know," Fincher said. "Last I saw of him he was moving quickly up the beach."

"What about Harland?"

"He was right behind the sarge!" the ground shook as a grenade went off nearby, sending sand over the makeshift shield.

"What about everyone else?"

"Wilks and Jackson are dead," Cochran said, a slight tremble in his voice. "Wilks got a plasma bolt in the face, Jackson got needled." The thought of Greggs popped into Sarah's head for a split second, then vanished as the Covenant tank fired yet another round into the sand. This time though, it landed not ten metres away from where they were ducked down. It knocked them all back, and forced Fincher to scramble out of the open and back into the protection of the shield.

"Yo, rocket jockey!" Manny yelled, slapping Walker's helmet. "You think you can take out that tank?" the other man looked sceptically back at the private.

"I ain't got my loader with me," Walker replied. "Anyone seen Connor?"

"Yeah," Sarah shouted over the hail of plasma. "He was lying injured outside our boat last time I saw him."

"And I saw him a few seconds without a face," Fincher grunted. "He's dead."

"You've got enough ammo, though?" Manny said to Walker.

"I got eight rockets with me, yeah."

"Plus two up the pipe, that's fine." Manny yelled back. "Cochran can help you!"

"You got a plan?" Fincher said into his mic. Manny turned and winked at him.

"From what I can see, the turrets are way out of range to do any real damage. The barricades are also too far away to have any real degree of accuracy, and the Grunts in the trench can be taken out with some well-placed grenades. Which leaves the tank, and that is the most accurate and deadliest thing I can see at the moment." He looked around for a moment, then fiddled with his ear piece. "Bravo squad, Echo squad, do you copy, this is Alpha squad, requesting assistance."

"Who doesn't?" a rough a grizzle voice replied. Sarah, hearing all this in her own ear-piece recognised the voice as Corporal Boid, of Bravo Squad. "Hilner's down, along with half our squad. And from what I can see, everyone else is doing pretty badly!"

"Amen to that," came Bogg, Echo squads Sergeant. "In what way do you think we can help you, Private Manors?"

"The way I see it, sir, is that the only real threat at the moment is the tank. Now, seeing that me and my squad mates are nearest to it, I'm taking the initiative to neutralise it. Those make shift bunkers don't seem to be too much of a problem, but could use a rocket or two anyway. Snipers can take out the turrets, and we can grenade the trench. If done simultaneously, we can effectively neutralise half their defence, if not more."

There was a long pause, and Sarah thought that Bogg was going to come back on the radio and threaten Manny with a court-martial for being so stupid.

"That sounds like a damn good idea, Private." Bogg said. "Just give the signal. I have my men ready as we speak. I also piped through to the other platoons, they're ready when you are."

"Me too, " Boid said. "Just tell us when, I got all my boys on you frequency."

"Looks like you got your fifteen minutes, buddy" Fincher grinned at him, then slapped him on the back. Manny blushed a little, then knelt up more and laid down the general plan. Manny and Fincher were going to lay down suppressing fire on either sides of the cover, whilst Cochran and Sarah threw grenades into the trenches. As this was going on, Walker was to launch a salvo at the tank.

"Shouldn't we get Grace up here to help with the turrets?" asked Sarah.

"That's a damn good idea," Manny said. "Taylor, where are you?"

"On my way to you, Manny." Grace's voice came back; she sounded out of breath. "Just happened to overhear your conversation.

"So did we," another voice said. "And as your commanding officer I order you not to throw grenades into the trench!" the others laughed. Sarah allowed herself a grin, but kept focused.

"Thought you were dead, Sarge. How many did you rack up this time?"

"I'll tell you when we get out, boy. Raynes, out." Manny quickly relayed to the other squads and platoons not to grenade the trench unless they were positive of enemy activity. He also told Sarah and Cochran to run to the trench when everything was clear as they got into position. Sarah looked passed Fincher to see the slight frame of Grace as she dashed towards them.

But before she made it, a hail of plasma fire scorched her side and she was flung to the ground. Sarah cried out in anguish at seeing her friend getting hit.

"Grace! Grace!" she shouted. "Grace, honey, are you okay?" there was no reply. And Sarah knew there wouldn't be one either. The limp form lay motionless, black scorch marks littering her upper body and helmet. She felt tears well up inside her, but forced herself to stay calm. A hand reached out and squeezed her shoulder.

"She's gone Sarah," Manny said. I know that, you idiot! But she didn't say it, primarily because she didn't mean it. She grabbed for his hand, but he pulled it away before she got a hold of it. She lifted her shotgun up and made ready to dash for the trench.

"Now!" Manny shouted into his mic. He and Fincher rolled out of the cover and rattled off a dozen rounds at the bunkers, then rolled back in. As they did so, Walker stood up and lifted the rocket launcher over the cover in one fluid motion. A second later he had fired off a round. Another second passed and the second rocket streaked out towards the Covenant tank. There were two distant explosions as they all saw the tank flinch from the first rocket, then crumple under the force of the second one. There was a cheer over the radio, and Walker got a clap on the back before the Covenant started to retaliate, briefly concentrating their fire on where the tank's destroyer was.

Everybody ducked back down, and Sarah could see a sudden movement up and down the beach as marines ran towards the trenches, weapons firing. Rockets streaked out at the bunkers, two, three, four of the bunkers exploded instantly. Marines fell under Covenant fire, Covenant fell under Marines fire. It was war.

"Lets get to that trench, people!" Manny yelled into his mic. Sarah picked herself up off of the floor and ran towards the giant gap in the sand. She pumped her legs as hard as she could, trying to get more speed, despite her boots sinking into the sand. Slinging her shotgun over her shoulder, she clicked the release catch on her backpack, and it fell to the ground behind her, giving her more room to run and less to run with.

Manny was quite a way behind, with the others bringing up the rear. Sarah threw herself into the trench, landing heavily on her shoulder. She pulled herself up quickly, dusting off her trousers, then whipped out her shotgun, checking for any sign of the enemy. There was no sign of the Covenant, but more importantly, there was no sign of Raynes or Harland. She ran a few metres to her right, coming up to a barrier. She checked it was clear then went back to where she had entered the trench. Manny and the others hadn't even made it to the trench yet.

As she turned to go back to the barrier, she felt something flash across her thigh. Despite the lack of pain, she knew it was a Covenant plasma bolt. Heat seared her flesh and her combat pants melted under the intense energy blast. She felt dizzy as another bolt struck her chest armour, sending her to the floor. The noise around her seemed to dampen, as her vision went black.
She felt something grabbing at her, but lost consciousness before her brain could interpret whether it was good or bad.

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