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Dubbo by Commander Demitri Wolf
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Private Chips Dubbo
Date: 27 August 2005, 6:58 am
It's the end of a long shift when the sirens start blaring; I am just setting down for a few hours of R&R. I throw my feet over the metal railing, fling my still-uniformed body to the deck and bend over my friend on the bunk below. "Hamish!" I yell, whacking him over the head with a pillow, "Wakey-wakey hands off snakey."
The young Marine opens his eyes and I hit him with the pillow again, "Get off me Joker!" he hollers and then pauses, "What's that noise?" I open my mouth to answer him when the intercom on the wall of our room clicks on, along with all the others onboard the ship.
"All persons, Covenant boarders have breached the ship, combat personnel to arms and techs to your stations." The voice is tart and has the distinct lacing of slight technical warbling around it. It belongs to the shipboard Artificial Intelligence, Cortana.
"Aw crap Joker," Hamish says to me and gets to his feet, "why does all the bad shit happen when I'm try'n to get some sleep?" I shrug and peer out of the room, other Marines are gearing up and making a run to the armoury, naïve young soldiers cheer in anticipation while the older ones are solemn and serious.
"Quick mate, gear up and get ready." I say and pat Hamish on the shoulder before I turn and leave, it would be the last time I ever see him alive.
My combat boots pound on the cold floor of the ship – the Pillar of Autumn – as I follow a group of the 405th ODST division towards the weapons lock-up. I attempt to open a frequency to Hamish but am cut off, "Private Dubbo, please report to Area 2-15A, our guest will rendezvous with you there, Captain Keyes wants to see him on the Bridge." I reach to my headset and press a button, an affirmative signal zips across the frequency to Cortana.
I skid to a halt besides a map of the ship and locate Area 2-15A; I find it a few rooms below the bridge, not to far from where I am. Abandoning the trip to the lock-up, I change course and slip through a closing bulkhead, down the corridor a Lieutenant is marshalling troops.
Rushing towards him I see a stack of MA5B rifles stacked up, I grab one and slid back the bolt, shoving a magazine into the chamber, a young private nearby looks lost and I shove a gun into his hands, "Follow me and make bloody sure you don't get killed."
He nods and we head down another corridor, in the room we just left a shower of sparks erupts and three two-legged creatures appear with plasma weapons spilling flames of blue energy everywhere. We spin around and see the creatures mowing down the soldiers, a bolt catches the Lieutenant in the face and he falls to the ground screaming, a second later one of the creatures brings its foot down on his face; no more screaming.
My new friend pulls a fragmentation grenade from his bandolier, rips out the pin and hurls in into the room, the dead Marines are blasted every-which-way but the creatures remain.
That's when my companion raises his weapon and fires a series of well placed bursts at the throats of the creatures, all of them drop to the ground; dead. I turn around and stare in awe, "What did you say your name was kid?" He looks at me and grins.
"Private Wallace Jenkins, sir."
"Well, Wallace, that was abso-fucking-lutely brilliant," I offer my hand and he shakes it, "PFC Chips Dubbo, but my friends call me Joker, keep it up mate." I gesture down the corridor and Wallace nods, we both round the corner and find ourselves in the middle of a full scale battle, "You read for this Joker?" Jenkins asks and I nod.
"You better bloody believe it Wallace."
Ten Minutes Later
Lieutenant Greg Li steered the 'Bumblebee' escape pod over a large canyon and further across the open expanse of artificial landscape. From the seat he could see the trees rushing past at high speeds and the incoming ground, with a last-ditch effort, he smashed both thumb down on the triggers and sent a high speed stream of sixty cal bullets zooming down towards the surface.
The pod slowed but still came down hard as the ground rushed up to meet it, it bounced and rolled over, finally coming to rest twenty metres from where it first hit. Li unbuckled himself and checked the status of the pods occupants, they were alive and well, a few minor knocks but nothing too serious, and were already grabbing their armaments and heading out of the pod.
He was the ranking officer among the rag-tag group and weighed up their tactical options as soon as he too left the pod and surveyed their location. They were in a small valley, two exits and a large rocky hill with weathered away channels; he was just about to call an order to move out when he heard the far off whine of a Covenant dropship's propulsion engines.
Without even needing to think, his analytical mind told him to get the soldiers to the high ground, "Covenant inbound, get up to the butte and hold position!"
His team was only seven strong and were going to have a hard time defending themselves from an Apparition dropship full of Covenant troops; he saw one or two faces he recognised, Sergeant's Hasting and Kelly as well as a Private, Chips Dubbo.
They clicked back the bolts on MA5B assault rifles and M6D pistols while Dubbo scavenged an S2 AM Sniper Rifle from the weapons locker and shoved a clip into in, "Lock and load."
The seven man team had just reached the top of the hill and taken their defensive positions when the roar of a Warthog sounded not far off. The dropship was getting very close as the awe-inspiring sight of the giant-wheeled jeep leaping over a rise, green armoured giant driving with two Marines whooping alongside him came into Li's vision.
The Spartan steered expertly and guided the 'Hog through the outcrops of rock to the top of the hill, where the trio disembarked and joined the others.
"Sir," the giant said to Li, his voice projected from the helmet mounted external speakers, "These dropships have been coming in all over the place, as soon as possible I'm calling in Echo-419 to pick you and your team up and transported to Alpha landsite."
Li looked into the reflective golden visor with a hint of fear, "Aye aye, Good to have you here Chief." The Spartan nodded and signalled for the Marines to fan out, he unslung an assault rifle and looked up as a purple horseshoe-shaped craft descended from the clear blue sky.
Without a second's thought all his years of military training took control and he ran the short distance and leapt off the outcrop, landing ten metres below in a crouched position. He cocked the weapon in his hands and crept behind another huge rock; he peered out and saw the craft drop a group of Covenant soldiers to the ground before rising and letting of several giant plasma bolts at the Marines, all of which missed.
It shot off into the distance and the Master Chief quickly dashed to the cover of the next rock, he sighted two Grunts - the Covenant's cannon fodder - and dove under the overhanging rock face while simultaneously letting off a volley of bullets.
The Grunts went down in a plume of methane gas and a shower of their own blood, the Spartan crawled along the ground and let off another, longer, burst. It caught an Elite square in the chest and its shields flickered and died, he made to let off another volley but the gun clicked, empty.
He cursed himself for not checking and grabbed a grenade to hurl at the rapidly approaching Elite, just as a flash of light and a crack! shot out from the hill above and the Elite's throat exploded.
Praising the sniper, the Chief rolled out from under the rock and pulled the pin on the grenade, with a hurl of his arm the metal ball soared into the air and arced down, landing below the second incoming dropship.
With a tumultuous bang the grenade pierced the hull of the ship and severed the propulsion generator, the ship tipped and crashed down to the ground. Inside, the eight passengers and two Elite crew members were burnt alive by the leaking plasma.
With the wrecked ship spewing out molten plasma and small fights going on all around him, the Chief dropped the assault rifle and picked up the needler dropped by a Grunt he had killed.
He ran from his cover and almost collided with a crimson armoured Elite, the beast roared and made inarticulate noises. The technology in the Chief's Mjolnir armour translated it instantly as the Elite dove and fired at John with a plasma rifle, "Say goodbye, Demon."
John-117 leapt towards the creature and grabbed its gun arm, with a twist he ripped the rapidly firing rifle free and with his other hand he shoved the butt of his needler into the creature's chest and fired six rounds. "Goodbye," he said calmly and kicked himself backwards as the sound of shattering glass the long crystalline shards exploded in a shower of pink light, blowing the Elites entrails out backwards.
With two more shots to the warrior's head for good measure, the Chief grabbed two plasma grenades from its waist and jumped at the nearest rock. Using small handholds, he climbed to the top and then bounded over another three until he could survey the area.
All hostiles had been terminated with only two Marine fatalities, he made sure there were no lurking threats on his motion tracker and then spoke to the AI in his suit, "Cortana, call in Foehammer; we're done here."
Twenty Three Hours Later
The day after we crashed down here, I'm sent with Jenkins and a team of Marines led by the gung-ho Sergeant Avery Johnson to a remote outpost on the surface of the ringworld we now knew as Halo.
Johnson is playing some of his old music and the only ones who seem to be enjoying it are him and Wallace. The Sergeant had just snapped at Mendoza for bad-mouthing it so I don't bother complaining as well.
"Mendoza, if you spent half as much time exercising your weapon as you did your god-damned mouth, you'd have single handedly wiped the Covenant from existence!" The Sergeant had said, and as much as I don't like his taste in music, I like him more and more every minute.
"Hey Joker," Wallace says and I turn to him with a 'What's Up' expression on my face, "You got any family back where you come from, you know, just outta interest."
I open my mouth to reply but Johnson beats me to it, "God damn boy, we're here to fight a war! Not share crumpets and tea and knit sweaters now are we?" he shakes his bald head and grins, "I swear, you rookies get more sentimental every year. Well go on son," he says and gestures at me, "Answer Private Pansy."
I give a half smile and nod, "Yeah a wife and a kid, he's great, well so is she if you know what I mean," That gets a laugh out of the others, "haven't seen 'em in a while though, too long really." He nods empathetically and Mendoza starts talking about his family who apparently are part of the twenty seven percent of humanity who still live on Earth.
I don't hear a word though; my mind is on my family, my wife Sari and our daughter Cara, only two years old and already going to be as beautiful as her mother is. Not being able to see or be with them is the worst part of my conscription to the UNSC, but serving all the human occupied systems and getting rid of those Covie bastards is the most rewarding thing I could ever do.
I sit the rest of the journey in silence, thinking, will I ever get off this ring, will I ever get home and will I see my family again.
Of course I would, I was being stupid.
The Pelican starts descending and my trance is halted, Sergeant Johnson begins barking orders and I follow the others out the back of the Pelican. "Private Dubbo, hello, is anyone in there?" He yells at me and I look up at him, "Good, take point."
"Yes sir," I reply and cock my MA5B, I move to the front of the group and push forward through the marshland. It is cold and dank but we keep going, a minute later I see a light in the distance and hold up a hand, "Sir, there's something up there."
Johnson comes up from behind me and turns back to face everyone, "We got a crashed Pelican, fan out, surround the dee zee." We all move out and forward and as I manoeuvre around a small bog I spot a lump on the ground, "Sergeant, I got a body."
"Full of discoveries today aren't we Private," comes the reply, "Check the dog tags, see if you can ID 'em." Someone else had found a body too I hear them exclaim as I reach down and turn over the cold figure.
I gasp in shock and don't bother to check the Marines identification before I hold my shaking head in my hands.
It's Hamish.
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