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A rookies tale by twoxsteele
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Tale of a green marine
Date: 14 August 2004, 4:58 PM
My name was James Marlow, now it's Private first class James Marlow, before the coming of the Covenant to Earth, I led a peaceful happy life with my family, my parents, wife and two sons. Them when the Covenant arrived after destroying the orbital defences, there was a huge drive to recruit new marines, I singed up not knowing what fighting the Covenant was like and how my life outside of military service would be shattered forever.
I remember my first day as a marine, going to Quantico for training in combat, the instructor was a female gunnery sergeant with huge numbers of facial scars and a cybernetic leg. We marines knew her as Iron side, Iron side was a veteran of many a battle against the Covenant, it was said she fought like the legendary cyborg Spartan soldiers who are now all dead or they've disappeared. No one knew what motivated to fight like she did but every marine who was saved by her in a fight with Covies were thankful. The course was only two weeks long due to the impending threat of the Covenant fighting the fleet above.
On clear nights, you could see the stars but at that time all you could see where the two fleets in orbit, the flashes that signified the exchange of weapons fire between the vessels of either fleet, and the huge white flash letting you know that hundreds of lives had been lost. Once the training course was finished I was shipped out with my squad to Antartica, a Covenant cruiser and two frigates that had been severely damaged in the orbital battle had landed for repairs and to set up a foothold, five squads of grizzled ODST marines and three squads of raw recruits were being sent in. When being transported by Pelican dropship to a base in Antartica from where we would be given a new type of battle armour that protects the wearer from plasma energy for a limited number of shots, these suits were heavy, but like my old suit, there was Carbonic-steel Flak armour in places that were vulnerable. We were issued new battle rifles and additional sub machine guns to supplement our standard issue pistol.
My division was shipped out via Pelican dropships being escorted by Hellcat gunships, the insertion was meant to go smoothly with the ODST's moving in first to clear the drop zone, the regular grunts like me would head in and clear the area while the ODSTS's moved toward the cruiser, plant anti matter charges, ( a technology copied from the covenant) and retreat. The two frigates would then be taken care of by the Hellcats and a combined ground assault of marines and ODST's.
When the time came for the operation to begin, my squad was sent in the first wave of marines to clear the area, I was sure that the armour would protect me, still I prayed to God that my aim was true and that I wouldn't get fried by plasma. The pelicans reached the site, all of my squad jumped out of the pelican into the cold icy environment of Antartica. The CO of my squad, a grizzled veteran who loved his shotgun and carried two dual belts like he was out of a movie, ordered us to form up and move our asses to the objective.
Twenty long minutes passed, in those twenty minutes the sounds of battle reached my squad, the sound of automatic weapons fire and the odd sound of plasma travelling through the air, the screams of men who were either dying or wounded, the alien battle cries. I wished at that time that the fight would happen so I had something to aim at through the sights of my rifle, at that moment I got my wish, a wounded Elite, wearing the red armour that signified a veteran, walked up, the elite was bleeding from bullet wounds. I aimed the scope of my rifle at the Elite who by then was roaring and I pulled the trigger, the Elites head blew open in an explosion of blue-purple gore and bone, the body fell to the ground.
The marines next to me watched as I popped the head of the Elite, they looked in astonishment at the perfect head shot that I made, in those few seconds I thanked god that the Elite hadn't had it's energy shield working and that my aim was true. The sergeant leading the squad congratulated me on my perfect shot, and said he had only ever seen a Spartan shoot at an alien without question and hesitation. That was my first kill, the moment never left my mind as my squad moved on leaving the Elite's corpse to freeze and rot in the barren wasteland.
That was my first encounter with the Covenant, I didn't deceive myself, the ODST's that were fighting in the distance had followed operational procedure by targeting all the elites first. The elite that I had killed must have escaped from the battleground seeking a squad of marines to slaughter. After that encounter, my squad reached it's objective, a small clearing in the middle of a mountain of Ice. The sergeant, myself and two marines who were using their SMG's, went in first to scout the area fro any Covenant. All that we found were frozen jackals, elites and grunts, unable to survive in the extreme temperatures. Next to the freeze dried bodies of the Covvies, I planted some plastic explosive with some plasma grenades that hadn't frozen over. Once the four of us were clear of the area I detonated the explosive, the Ice mountain melted thanks to the plasma released from all the plasma weapons and the methane tanks of the grunts.
My squad moved back to the landing zone, there were dead Covenant on the ground, mainly Grunts and Elites wearing blue armour. The machine gunners and snipers that we had left behind wear extremely happy to see us, when we went into the mobile mess hall that had been sent up everyone started shouting and singing, not for long though as the ODST's were back from the cruiser. Some of the Helljumpers were missing, they came back later carrying tones of captured plasma rifles and pistols, the plasma weapons in question were handed out to all of us regular grunts while the sergeants stuck to their rifles and shotguns.
I was given a plasma rifle, this one differed from all of the other rifles, it had a weird sighting system. I was given this by one of the senior Helljumpers after the sergeant about my splatter shot of the Elite. Once everyone was done drinking, the Hellcats were coming into destroy the two abandoned frigates. The lightshow was beautiful as the missiles launched by the Hellcats headed into the frigates through gaps in the hull, the area where the engine exhaust vents of the Covenant vessel were located.
Once the light show was over, the Pelicans came into pick us up, after a twelve hour journey on the Pelican. We were back at Quantico, Ironside congratulated me for my splatter shot and told me that the rifle that I has was a Covenant sniper rifle. I left Quantico on leave when I heard that my home town of San diego had been destroyed by plasma bombardment from orbit when a Covenant carrier broke through the defensive lines in the Solar system. My wife and two kids were dead, this left a hollowed out feeling in me and a rage that would never quenched till I died. As I am telling you this story, that feeling still haunts me.
After hearing the news all my fellow marines said how sorry they were except fro one called Parkins. Parkins was an ex ONI intelligence agent that had been demoted after a failed intel op that resulted in the loss of 300 marines and a destroyer. Parkins was sort of sniggering at my loss, this was until the Covenant smiper rifle I had was active and aimed right at his face. All the marines in the room were surprised but didn't bring their weapons up against me, Parkins was an outcast thanks to the deaths he had caused. He said I didn't have the balls to kill him, I proved him wrong. On the lowest setting I fired a beam of plasma that went through his left arm leaving a large hole the size of the exit wound that 50.ca;l ammo leaves.
After doing that every single marine in the room steered clear of me with the remaining time I was with the squad. No charges were brought up as Parkins was lower than a traitor for his failed op. As for me, in the following few battles with the Covenant till I transferred from the marines to the Helljumpers. I killed as many Covenant as possible, Never used the plasma weapon, I always used my rifle, pistol and bullet hoses to get the job done. I came close to death countless times and gained renound, Ironside herself said she had seen such a relentless killing machine like me since the Spartans had made their last stand at Reach.
The next operation that was significant would be my last as a regular green marine, by now I had countless notches in the battle rifle I had killed the Elite with, the SMG's were worn out by now and my pistol hadn't the silver finish that it originally had. My armour was damaged, the carbonic steel plates that served as an overlay of additional armour were missing, my helmet had plasma burns all over the place and the data display had fell off. I didn't care as long as I got to be a lean mean killing marine. The squad was a different story, the sergeant was still there in command but Ironside had joined us, some of the original members of the squad were still there, others were dead or too wounded to fight, those that had been replaced had been replaced with kids who could barely move in their new armour. These new recruits had been told of what happened to Parkins, a year before this important battle, the recruits looked at me and saw a man wearing battle scarred armour, a submachine gun with burns all over the place and two spare clips taped on, a pistol with tons of dried blood on it, a Covenant rifle that still looked brand new and a battle rifle with tons of notches on the butt stock. One of the recruits, named Harker, asked me how long I had been in prison for killing Parkins, I answered with the barrel of the bean rifle in his face and said no. Harker asked how long I had been fighting for, I said since the battle of Antarctica (it had been two years since then, half of the Earth was either glassed or in Covenant claws). All of the raw recruits looked at me amazed, the veterans just laughed at the new recruits. Two days after this the battle for Washington had commenced, the Covenant had literally crashed a cruiser into Washington, the guns of the vessels then opened up on all of the skyscrapers to bring them crashing down. The operation was to destroy all Covenant forces in the city.
My squad crept into the remains of the city under darkness, overhead twp destroyers that had survived the orbital bombardment were literally burying the city with their MAC cannons and Napalm bombs dropped by Hellcat gunships and Pelicans. I was on point for this mission, in the distance the distant crackle of automatic weapons fire and the chattering of light machine guns could be heard. This marked the fact that were still pockets of resistance (human pockets of resistance against the remaining Covenant ), I was alert to anything around me, I heard the crack of a rock falling from what used to be a room in a small concrete building, I saw an Elite in blue armour, with the kind of rifle that I carried on my back. I was patient till the Elite turned, I aimed through the sights of my rifle lined them up, then pulled the trigger. The shield of the Elite was neutralised, I then squeezed off two rounds on semi automatic. I watched the two rounds hit home, blowing open the elites chest, the dead body fell to the ground. I looked around for more Covies playing sniper. I found none hiding in the other wreckage, I called up my unit but they were too late to save me from losing my leg , it was cut by a Brutes blade, the brute snuck up on me. I filled him full of lead with my SMG which jammed up, another two brutes jumped down, I expended the last of the ammo contained in my rifels magazine in hosing them. I reloaded my rifle with the last of my ammo. I waited, help was on the way, I could feel the hatred of the Covenant welling up inside of me for the murder of children, family and wife.
While I played dead some grunts were walking past, strangely they were unaccompanied by an elite, I watched them, they were dancing around. Once curious grunts came right up to me and examined my bleeding wound , I swung my rifle up and fired a short burst into the stomach of the grunt. The armour piercing rounds hit another two grunts walking past by sheer coincidence, the two grunts fell down screaming. The rest of the grunts knew I was still alive and saw the dead brutes surrounding my position. I felt my strength going away, the wound was bleeding, I could barely move. One of the grunts aimed his weapon at me, with all my remaining strength I fired a plasma blast from the plasma rifle on the highest setting, this overheated the weapon making it blow to pieces in my hands. The grunts were surrounding me like jackals, waiting for the kill, they wouldn't get a chance, I was close to death . I couldn't move, an Elite appeared, a look of curiosity and surprise on his face wondering what had killed three brutes when surprised .
The Elite looked at me, with undisguised surprise, he saw my disfigured hands, the weapons and empty brass shell casings around me, the blood that was spilling out of the wound on my leg, the battle scarred armour and the deep black pit of Hatred in my eyes. The Elite for a second looked afraid, then walked towards me and barked something in his language to the grunts, he grunts cam towards me hitting me with the butts of their weapons till I was knocked out cold.
It felt like eternity but in glimpses when I lapsed in and out of unconsciousness, I saw I was being carried by the Elite that had been afraid and amazed at me. Later I woke up, in a prison cell, I was still weak from blood loss and the beating I had received from the grunts. I looked around, the movements of my neck causing pain all over my body, the Elite was watching me and to my surprise there was a prophet looking at me. The prophet spoke in English saying that I was worthy of mercy on the part of the gods and that I would be taken to the Covenant home world to be examined by the supreme prophet. I was too weak to say anything and fell back into unconsciousness. The next time I woke up, three marines were standing over me.
They were all women and to my surprise Ironside was among them, there was a smell of methane, probably from a dead grunt, I was immediately happy till I heard the gunfire and the plasma blasts, the force field stopping me form escaping came back up, the three marines were trapped with me and the marines outside were killed by the brutes. I heard the screams of the marines as they were carted off by the grunts for processing, two female marines who weren't wounded where carted off into another prison cell adjacent to mine. The two marines were left in there with one of the brutes. Ironside watched in horror at the proceeding events which left no doubt that the Brutes were indeed biologically related to Humans. The next day the two marines were lying on the floor. They were wearing no armour and spent their time crying. After two week imprisoned , the brutes guarding us, pulled me out of the prison cell and cut my now healed wound open with a small knife. The brutes I could guess were enraged at losing some of their brethren, after letting lie and bleed, the Elite that had taken me prisoner ,appeared wearing golden armour and proceeded to fry the brutes with his plasma rifle.
The elite ordered the grunts to put into the adjacent prison cell for observational study. The two victimised marines had been given armour taken from the processed marines. They looked at my wounds and scowled at me fro being capture d which led to their victimisation. They took pity at my pain and patched me up, my leg was useless now. I couldn't tell how long I was a prisoner on that crashed Covenant cruiser , I was wondering when they'd send me to their homeworld. At this time a miracle happened , there were sounds of gunfire and plasma fire in the area around the prison cell, out stepped the gold Elite with a combat knife stuck in his back. The elite looked at me and fell, two squads of ODST's and the sergeant who led my squad stepped in along with the Master chief himself and another two Spartan soldiers. The chief looked at my wounds, he walked up tome and said " Honour to meet a real Spartan".
After this rescue I was taken to a base in Britain, there I rested and was outfitted with a cybernetic skeleton, after my continued paralysis due to the leg wound which had been affected with a paralysis agent. Ironside and the Sergeant checked up on me and so did to my amazement the Master chief, with the other two Spartan soldiers. The AI called Cortana made a comment about prowess in battle and offered me a chance to be come part of a squad that was totally human that worked for the master chief himself.
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