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Mist: Prologue
Date: 26 December 2004, 6:18 AM
Prologue: Shot Heard round the World
February 3, 2525
UNSC space, just several thousand kilometers from Harvest
"Captain!"
"What is it, ensign?"
"S-sir. You should come look at this! It's nothing, I mean NOTHING we've ever seen before!"
Well, now this certainly piqued Captain Edward Wellings' curiosity. Last he had heard, there wasn't supposed to be anything of interest in this sector.
"Well, ensign..."
"Wilkens, sir."
"Wilkens. Tell me what's going on."
The young man hesitated for a moment.
"Uhh, I'm not sure how to explain this sir."
Captain Wellings leaned forward to get a closer look at the crewman. Jesus, these kids just get younger every day.
"By all means. Just put in the most blunt term possible then."
"Sensors just picked up an unidentified ship sir! Aliens!"
Captain Wellings was already making his way to the bridge.
By the time Captain Wellings reached the bridge, he found, much to his disgust, somebody already there waiting for him.
"Ah, Captain Wellings. Finally found a decent time to actually come to the bridge, have you?"
Captain Wellings ignored Lieutenant Holsom's snide remark. The man was from ONI, which meant that he outranked Wellings by light years.
"No sir. I believe that YOU would have better things to do than sending a UNSC warship out in the middle of nowhere without telling me or my crew why?"
"Hardly."
"I'm sure. Sampson, what's this 'alien' ship I'm hearing about?"
The young sensor tech turned around from her console.
"I'm getting strange readings from bearing oh-two-niner. Surface scans can't get a match on any known UNSC or human craft, and its using some sort of signal frequency that the computer can't get a solid fix on, much less decode..."
"Get me a visual."
"Sir, we're not in visual range yet."
"Then by god, GET us in visual range!"
"Aye, captain!"
Captain Wellings sat down as his ship, the Thunderbolt, rumbled to life. He felt slight G-forces as the massive frigate turned and accelerated toward the alien craft. He turned to see Lieutenant Holsom's reaction to this and frowned. For what could possibly be the find of the century, the discovery of sentient alien life, Holsom looked horribly pale and nervous. Wellings just shook his head and turned his attention back to the bridge. How ONI spooks thought wasn't his concern.
"We are in visual range, Captain!"
"Put it up on screen 1."
The screen in front of Wellings buzzed to life. First as a sea of gray static, but soon melted into a black void of white pinpricks. In the middle of the screen, Wellings could make out a small, purple teardrop just floating in the void.
"Is this it?"
"Yes sir. The ship doesn't appear to be moving under any power, but we've confirmed that there is some sort of comm traffic emanating from the craft. Decision sir?"
Wellings stopped and thought for a moment.
"Get us into comm range, then try to hail it."
"Aye, Captain."
"No! Captain! Stop what you're doing, NOW!"
The sudden outburst startled the entire bridge crew, though only Wellings turned to face him. The ONI officer was now extremely agitated and hysterical.
"Lieutenant! Calm down or I'll be forced to restrain you!"
"You don't understand do you!?!? Turn the ship around!!"
"I will do no such thing, Lieutenant! We are about to make contact with a sentient alien race for the first time in human history! This is no time to become squeamish!"
"CAPTAIN! If you move this ship any farther, we'll all die! They'll kill every one of us!"
"LIEUTENANT!" Wellings was screaming at the top of lungs now. "YOU WILL STAND DOWN."
"I'm in command of this mission!"
"And I'm in command of this ship! If you can't keep your behavior in line, you can cool off in the brig! Is that clear?!"
Before Holsom could even answer, there was shriek in the bridge.
"Captain!"
Wellings momentarily took his attention off of Holsom and turned to the crewwoman.
"The alien ship has suddenly accelerated and it's headed right towards us! It's on a collision course!"
Wellings thought quickly about his option. Alien contact or risk losing his ship and crew. It didn't take long to choose.
"Weapons! Arm the Archer pods! All of them! and power up the MAC! If that thing gets any closer, I want you blow it out of the sky!"
"Aye captain!"
Suddenly, Holsom worked up the nerve to speak again.
"Captain! NO! If you take one shot at that ship, you'll doom us all!"
"And if I don't, we collide and we all die anyways!"
"You don't understand! You take one shot and you doom every fucking human being in this galaxy!"
"Alien ship closing fast! Thirty seconds until impact!"
"Captain!"
Wellings finally had had enough. He quickly called over a group of four Marines.
"I've finally had enough of your insubordination, Lieutentant! Sergeant Holmes! Restrain Lieutenant Holsom and take him to the brig!"
The Marines quickly complied and yanked the mad Lieutenant from the bridge.
"Captain! Twenty seconds until impact!"
"Fire Archer missiles A through F!"
Suddenly, another voice from the bridge cried out.
"Alien ship breaking off!"
Bile suddenly surged up though Captain Wellings as he realized his mistake.
"Weapons! Belay that-"
But is was too late. Hundreds of missiles shot out from the Thunderbolt and began to converge on the alien ship. The alien ship stopped and fired some sort of plasma energy beam. There was a bright blue flash, and suddenly dozens of missiles exploded in mid flight, though Wellings knew that no ship could survive getting pounded by a full volley of Archer missiles.
Explosions rippled over the alien craft as the Archer missiles found their mark. Wellings expected to see the twisted and burnt remains of the ship.
"Sampson, get me a damage report on the alien ship. Maybe it wasn't totally destroyed."
"Uh, sir. Sensors are showing that the ship is still in one piece, and fully functional!"
"What?!"
Wellings turned to look out the viewport, and saw the alien craft still floating there as some silvery shimmer slowly faded away.
"What in God's name..."
Suddenly, the alien ship fired back. A single blue plasma bolt shot at them, but it missed and grazed to the port side of the Thunderbolt.
"Sir! Multiple hull breaches on decks 3 to 10!"
"Internal fires on decks 4 and 6..."
"We've got dozens of casualty reports coming in, sir!"
"My god, it's an act of war! Sensors! I want to know why the hell that ship is still there! Weapons, fire all remaining missiles and the MAC cannon! I want that thing dead and dead NOW."
More missiles shot out at the alien craft, and most were destroyed by its plasma beams. The few missiles that did get through stopped short just several hundred meters as the same silvery shimmer stopped them. The MAC round also shot through, smashed into the silver wall, and bounced off like a rubber ball.
The entire bridge crew stood stunned. They had never seen a ship take a direct hit from a MAC and stay in one piece, much less be completely unphased.
"W-weapons. Do we have anything bigger than the MAC?"
The crewman at the Weapons console was lost for words, and his voice was barely a whisper.
"N-no sir."
Then, Sampon's voice cut in again.
"We're receiving a transmission from the alien craft, on the D-band."
"Play it."
Suddenly, all the screens came to life. All filled with six simple words:
"Your destruction is the will of our gods, we are their instrument."
Captain Wellings suddenly didn't know why, but he suddenly thought about his wife and his two daughters.
Then the alien craft fired. The Thunderbolt and its crew passed from ship, to silhouette, to legend.
Unknown Location
In a dark room, hidden away from public knowledge, a figure sat in front of a computer screen, reading the same message over and over.
STATUS REPORT
Border reconnaissance of Harvest system total failure. Thunderbolt has violated treaty by crossing into Covenant-controlled space. All contact with Thunderbolt lost. All operatives currently working on covering up the event. No contact from Covenant ambassadors. Last known projected course puts it on a trajectory to Harvest.
Lieutenant Haverson
END REPORT
The figure sat there for ten endless minutes to have the small report sink in. Finally he managed to mutter.
"May God help us all..."
Mist: Chapter 1
Date: 30 December 2004, 9:06 AM
Author's Notes: After reading this, I know you'll have the "what's this have to do with the prologue?" feeling. But trust me, the connection comes much later.
Also, I forgot to put the code in earlier, so here it is:
bold: Place or location names to indicate viewpoint shifts.
italic: Personal thoughts, written material, or points of emphasis.
Mist
by Winters
Chapter 1: Battlefield Woes
Year 2552
Aeola, in the Fenris System
Aeola. Such a pretty name for such an uninspiring fog world. Aeola, located well inside of official UNSC-known space, was ironically totally unknown to anybody except for several high ranking officers in ONI, two UNSC destroyers, a force of Marines, 2 billion colonists, and the entire Covenant armada. The only thing that made Aeola special from any other world was its unique orbit. Rather than orbiting around one sun, this planet simultaneously orbited around two suns in a figure 8 loop. This odd configuration of planets and stars created massive, unexplainable electromagnetic fields, which fortunately for the humans, the Covenant ships could not tolerate for some reason. Many hypothesized that the combined magnetic fields from both suns and Aeola disrupted the plasma energy that powers the Covenant ships, making them unable to fire their weapons and sometimes causing engine failures.
Though that didn't mean UNSC ships were wholly unaffected as well. The magnetic fields played havoc with communications and sensor equipment, giving countless Navy techs fits.
Even though this system was clearly hazardous to both the Covenant and Humanity, both forces had very large military presences either near or on the planet. The Covenant had a ring of warships surrounding the system, keeping a close eye, while the planet itself had dozens of orbital shipyards and secret weapons labs scattered all over the surface of the planet.
Aeola itself was home to about 2 billion human colonists. Most were scattered around the planet in small towns and even villages, and there were actually very few major cities. This made the planet seem very rural and undeveloped. Also, many people would've been under the misconception that having to orbit two suns would make the planet extremely hot. Actually, it couldn't be farther from the truth. The atmospheric conditions blocked out a significant amount of solar radiation, making Aeola very cool and very foggy. Every day, it wasn't a question of whether it was going to be foggy or not, just how thick it was going to be.
Kenwood
"Hey, El Tee!"
"Huh?"
Lieutenant Karla Wellings looked up from her Warthog to see who it was. She saw a young Marine huffing and puffing in her direction. His unit patch suggested he was in her unit, but she could not recall seeing him before. That just meant one thing. Replacement.
"What is it," Karla took a quick glance at his Identify Freind Foe signal, "Boxer?"
"Captain Armbruster is asking for you! Says its important."
Great, over 300 combat missions against the Covenant, and I don't even get a scratch. Get transferred back to my home colony, and my CO gets me killed on the first day by sending me on another half-baked patrol.
Karla sighed, muttered something under breath, and turned to the young Marine.
"Where is he?"
"Company HQ."
"Great. Go tell him I'm on the way. And go check on second squad while you're at it. See if they got that roadblock set up on the east side of town."
"Yes ma'am!"
Boxer gave a quick salute and bounded off into the fog.
Karla just stood there for a moment, wondering how long that kid would last, when she slammed her Warthogs hood down and started walking to the Company HQ. She really had no idea where it was, but she had the general idea that it would be over at the town hall. They always tended to put them in the most obvious places. It at least made it easy to find. Wellings stopped for a second and took the moment to absorb her surroundings. It has been quite a while since she had last seen home. Even with an entire Covenant army swarming all over the place, nothing seemed to have changed much around here.
Karla continued walking through the streets. Right now, her company, the Death's Heads, aka D Company, was stationed in the town of Kenwood, since it held a bridge that was vital to civilian evacuation. Even though there really wasn't much chance the Covenant would glass the planet, that didn't stop them from landing huge armies on the planet surface. Right now, there were only five thousand Marines in the area, with over forty towns spanning hundreds of miles. Covering all of these locations with such limited resources proved all but impossible, so every town was advised to evacuate to the capital city of Lorain. What made Lorain so special was that it was the largest city in the area, it had a permanent military installation, and it held the fusion reactors that were vital in powering the orbital shipyards. Right now, the Kenwood Bridge was the only avenue of escape from the Covenant for every town on the north side of that river, and the stream of civilian vehicles crossing the bridge still showed no sign of ending.
As for her company, the Death's Heads, she was in command of its mechanized platoon. A unit exclusively made up of Warthogs. This gave the Death's Heads unparalleled mobility and speed, making them one of the more dangerous Marine units. Unfortunately, their combat effectiveness was not the result of exemplary leadership from the higher brass, but rather the lower ranking officers and NCOs who had the initiative and courage to hold the company together and salvage success from poor planning and intelligence. The unfortunate result was that higher ranking officers often took the credit for their accomplishments and used them as excuses to climb even higher up the promotion ladder.
Captain Armbruster was one such man. He made no attempt to get to know his men. He just thought up of the best way to get them all killed, convinced the top brass to put their stamp of approval on it, and send the Death's Heads into yet another suicide mission that would presumably fail, and when Karla and her fellow Marines managed to win despite overwhelming odds, the Captain gained even more favor with the top brass, convincing them to approve even more hairbrained missions that only the craziest Helljumpers would accept. It was basically a no-win scenario for Karla and her Marines.
At least in the Helljumpers, you died fighting the Covenant, not from stupid decisions...
Karla's thoughts were immediatly interrupted by a very shrill and very familiar voice. She looked up and saw Captain Armbruster storming over, blowing off steam as if the Covenant were right at his doorstep.
"Lieutenant Wellings! Its about damn time you got here! It seems that your father's habit of being late all the time has rubbed off on you!"
Karla stopped for a second and added another though to her previous one.
...and not from fighting each other.
As always, Captain Armbruster was in a foul mood, especially when he started a conversation with her. The Captain just loved sending her on the suicide missions and making snide remarks on her father. Karla suspected that Armbruster's grudge against her had something to do with her father before he disappeared.
That still didn't mean she wouldn't snipe at the man's pride whenever they met. She answered with her usual sarcastic greeting for him.
"I'm sorry, but it was my sister's birthday. I was out getting her a present, sir."
If it was even possible, Armbruster grew even more red faced and his shrill speech started to devolve into blubbering.
"You will treat superior officers with respect, lieutenant! It wasn't your sister's birthday last week, and I'm very sure it isn't her birthday today!"
Everybody else in the room shook their heads and went back to their tasks. These verbal matches happened all the time, and interfering would just put them in between the two of the most ill-tempered officers in the entire UNSC Marine Corps.
Mist: Chapter 2
Date: 11 January 2005, 9:07 AM
AU: As a quick note, future chapters will not be quite as short, as I will be combining chapters together and adding on to them in the future. Now, with that aside, back the fanfic.
Mist
by Winters
Chapter 2: The Dead Can Walk, Or So They Say
Two Hours Later
Two hours later, Wellings and her platoon were already on the road. Her orders were to scout a suspected Covenant position, dangerously near one of the remote UNSC installations that were set up around the region. The only problem was, they had no idea how many Covvies were out there, or if there were any at all. But right now, she was distracted by thoughts about her little sister, Sam, or Samantha. Last time Karla had seen her sister in person, it was when she was boarding the transport to Reach to attend the UNSC Officer Training Academy. The last time she heard from her was a letter from Sam informing her that she had managed to get into the Marines and was on the way to basic training. Karla had heard Sam's unit was also on Aeolus, and had hoped to stay long enough in Kenwood to locate her. But the brass had different plans though.
Karla's discontent for this mission was universally shared by the rest of her platoon. Even though it was UNSC regulation to maintain comm silence, most Marines ignored it, as the Covenant usually didn't notice, or completely disregarded Human comm traffic, and constantly filled the comm-bands with personal chatter.
"Hey El-Tee."
Karla recognized that voice. It was Sgt. Williams, the squad leader for second squad.
"Yeah, sergeant?" She replied.
"Let me go through this again." Williams failed to keep the annoyance out of his voice. " Command wants us to go scout a totally unknown and unmapped section of forest, for an undetermined amount of Covvies? Do we even know how many there are?"
Karla smiled, and replied with a painfully whimsical answer.
"The Captain said their intel was 'sketchy and fairly reliable."
"Great." Williams muttered. " They have no freaking idea what's out there, but they're sending us in anyways."
"Yeah, that's the same thing I told them." Karla said. She was about say something else when another voice cut in.
"Holy shit, you mean to tell me we actually have intel on this?"
"That's right, Johns." She replied, " But only for today."
A chorus of grunts and acknowledgments filled the comm.
An hour later, the sixteen Warthogs pulled into yet another town. Their last stop to civilization. Wellings took a look at the sign.
Welcome to Molino
Pop: 6,000
Elev: 3,000
Karla frowned. She had been to Molino before, and she knew from personal experience that the people who lived around here were as superstitious as they were paranoid, and there was plenty of both to go around in this town.
"Cobbs, Peterson, I want you to take two Hogs through town. See if anybody knows the surrounding area and is willing to be a guide."
"Yes ma'am!" Shouted both men as they gunned their Warthog's engines.
Karla watched the two men drive off into the mist. She seriously doubted that they would succeed. The townspeople in Molino were deathly afraid to leave town, much less their own homes. The believed all sorts of strange and evil creatures and spirits were waiting in the mist and surrounding forest, waiting to leap at them and drag them away.
I wonder why the hell they even moved here in the first place. She thought.
Twenty minutes later, both men returned, with a civilian vehicle in tow. Karla was thoroughly surprised.
"Hey, you finally got someone to come with us?"
"Not exactly, El-Tee." Cobbs pointed to the man behind him. " This guy says he's here to warn us."
The civilian vehicle in the rear stopped, and a very elderly man staggered out of the driver's seat.
"No... turn back, please."
Karla glared at Cobbs and said in a very flat voice, "Cobbs, explain."
The young private hesitated.
"Well, we've been asking around, but everybody was too scared to even face us. This guy came up and just told us to bring him to you. Said the mountains were dangerous."
Karla rolled her eyes at the words.
"And so are the Covenant." She retorted. " So, old man," She said, turning back around to face him, " are you going to be helping us, or do we have to tear up that mountain ourselves?"
The old man merely shook his head.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you. Even I don't know what's out here." He said sadly.
"What?" Karla knew that if she lost this guy, nobody was coming with them. " But you live here. Shouldn't you know the surrounding area?"
The old man now looked throughly frightened.
"No, you don't understand! Nobody goes up there. Ever." He craned his head forward as if to emphasize his point. " Nobody."
"And why is that?"
The old man took a look around, as if he were searching for any evil spirits that might've been eavesdropping. He then carefully walked up to Wellings and whispered in her hear.
"Because that's where the dead can walk..."
Thirty Minutes Later
"Hey El-Tee, are you sure we should be up here? I mean, that guy seemed really scared."
Karla merely snorted at the remark and replied, "Williams, are you going to take the word of some crazy old guy who lives in a town full of them? Seriously, the 'walking dead'?"
"You sure?" This time, instead of annoyance, Williams couldn't keep the anxiousness out of his voice. " I mean, with zombies, I'd go up against the Covvies any day."
"Williams, you've been watching waaay too many of those 20th century horror flicks. I told you those things were bad for you. Besides, the last reported sightings of those 'zombies' were more than six decades ago. I'm surprised those old coots still remember it." Desperately wanting to change the subject, however, Karla keyed her comm to another frequency. " Ryan! Tighten it up back there, the fog starts getting really thick up here!"
Three Kilometers Away
Zazat rushed up to try to find his Field Master, Raka Melazee. Zazat wished that he wouldn't have to be the one to report to the Elite about the bad news, but he lost the draw this time. The little grunt was now scared for his life. Melazee was known for his brutality on the battlefield, and that same brutality often extended to grunts as well. With his legs shaking and teeth chattering, Zazat reached the command post. He gulped and stepped inside.
The moment he got inside, Zazat shouted, "Field Master!"
Melazee, who was busy studying reports about the local human activity, did not even bother to turn and face the grunt.
"What is it, grunt?" He grumbled, still sifting though reports.
"I h-have a report from t-the dig teams, Field Master!" Zazat stammered.
This time, Melazee turned around.
"Report."
"W-well, progress i-i-is going well, b-but-"
Melazee was starting to get impatient.
"WHAT!?" He shouted.
Wanting to get it over with, Zazat squealed very quickly, "The teams accidentally released some of the creatures within the structure!"
It took every ounce of Raka's composure as an Elite to keep from throttling the poor little grunt, and he merely stood there, his kill-hand twitching.
"And what have you done about this?' He growled.
"T-they've eliminated all of the creatures! Um... Except for one..."
Melazee roared in rage and started swiping reports, weapons, and all sorts of items from the tables. Zazat feared that soon it was going to be him flying through the air.
Melazee regained enough to control to grab the grunt by the neck and growl, "Then find it."
Mist: Chapter 3
Date: 1 February 2005, 4:46 PM
Mist
by Winters
Chapter 3: Sniper
3rd Squad, from the 503rd Marine Division. Currently on patrol.
"Hey! Sniper! Up front!"
There was no answer.
Irritated, the sergeant yelled out again. "Damnit, Wellings, get up here!"
"Already am, sir!"
Sergeant Donald Paccone almost jumped in surprise, but he quickly caught it and managed to reduce it to a stiffening of his muscles at the back of his neck. He turned to face the girl garbed in a ghillie suit and holding a customized S2AM sniper rifle.
"Private," He growled, "what have I told you about doing that?"
The sniper saluted and yelled, "Sorry sir! Won't do it again, sir!"
"Don't give me that candy-ass talk! Get up there! There may be a Covvies up there and I don't want body parts flying if there is!" Paccone pointed up the fog-shrouded ridge. "I want you to recon that hill and see what's up there. And don't get spotted."
Private Samantha Wellings gave Paccone one of her sickeningly sweet smiles. She knew it had to infuriate the Sergeant.
"Yes sir!"
Sam darted off into the forest and met up with her spotter, Private Leon Carter. Sam just called him "Leo", since "Leon" just sounded silly, and the fact that Leo hated his full name.
Leo looked at Sam glumly and said, "Hey Sam, I wouldn't be messing with the Sergeant, you know. As I recall, this is your first actual combat mission."
"Yeah? Well until you nab a second mission under your belt, I'll just take your advice with a grain of salt." Sam retorted.
Like Sam called Leon "Leo", Leo often called Samantha "Sam", as her full name was a mouthful to say..
"Oh, I've been skewered the by the almighty Sam! Now I'll take seven hours to reevaluate my life." He said with a sarcastic edge.
"Cut it out, Leo." She said as she smacked his helmet. " Lets see if your spotting skills are as good as you think they are. Sarge says there might be a Shade around here."
Leo took out his SharpSight and began setting it up. The SharpSight T4 was a scope specially made for spotters working with snipers. It had a nearly 200x zoom capability along with multiple sight functions including infrared, nightvision, and electromagnetic. The only reason why the thing was never mounted on a rifle was because of its size and weight, both of which rivaled that of a light machine gun.
While Leo was busy mounting the SharpSight on its small tripod, Sam went prone and scanned the surrounding area for potential movement.
"See anything?"
"Um, lets see..." Leo played around with some switches and swiveled the SharpSight around a little. "I'm getting some unusual heat readings from that hilltop about twenty degrees to your right."
Sam shifted a little to comply with his instructions. Sure enough, she caught a bit of movement on the hilltop and muttered, "Holy shit. How many?"
"If I'm reading this right," Leo cycled through several more sight functions. "about five Elites, seven Jackals, and around twenty four Grunts, give or take a squad. Oh, and they've a got Shade pointed straight down the ridge."
Sam put her scope on maximum zoom. On the hill, she could make out the barrel of a Shade turret.
"Leo, radio the Sarge. Tell him what we've got up here." She then started setting up for a shot.
Leo looked at her. "You're actually going for it?"
Still setting up her rifle, Sam replied, "If I need to, yes."
Sam waited for a few seconds as Leo got a reply from Paccone.
"Sarge says to wait until he gets the rest of the squad set up."
A sharp crack filled the entire valley.
Twenty Miles Away...
Lieutenant Karla Wellings ran up to the front of the Warthog formation. For some reason, the lead units abruptly stopped, nearly causing the entire convoy to crash end for end.
"This better be good, Williams. Your oh so great driving nearly got us off the road."
"Uhhh, El Tee, we've hit a little snag in our route."
Karla raised an eyebrow. "Snag?"
"Yeah." Williams pointed farther down the road. "Apparently, the maps we've got don't show that giant fucking Covvie base in the middle of the road!"
Karla took a closer look and did indeed see movement down the road.
"See kids?" Karla got back to her Warthog and grabbed her rifle. "Crap like this is exactly what happens when you go on a mission with absolutely no intel!"
Williams broke in again, "Um, there's more, El-Tee." The Marine pointed further down the crater. Wellings squinted and could barely make out the shape in the mist...
"My god, what the hell is that?"
"That is supposed to be our objective." After a second of thought, he added in weakly, "Guess the Covvies beat us to it."
Wellings muttered. "Son of bitch..."
Her driver looked up. "What was that, ma'am?"
"Nothing." She got on the radio with Williams again. "Anything else?"
"Yeah. Looks like the structure is surrounded by, oh... a thousand Covvies... at least." The tone of his voice suggested he was making a comment on the weather, rather than describing a numerically superior enemy force.
"Great, more targets." Said one of the Marines.
Williams continued, "I would also like to point out that they have a lot, and I mean a LOT of heavy artillery and weapons emplacements scattered around their perimeter."
"That's why we call in a little air support." Karla said as she began dialing in a special frequency on her radio.
Willaims just stared blankly. "Huh?"
Still on the radio, Karla replied, "As I recall, Firebase Delta always keeps at least two Longswords hot and ready to go, for situations like these."
Williams finally caught on and smiled. "Yes ma'am! What are you going to tell them?"
"I'm telling them the Covvies captured an ONI facility. That should get their attention."
"And what do we do?" Williams inquired.
"I want second and third squads to drive around the crater and be prepared the flank the Covvies. Fourth squad goes in from behind, and first down the front. We attack on all sides. And please remember to use the forest lip to cover your movement." She waited for a few seconds to confirm the airstrike request and continued with her orders. "Once the Longswords finish their strafing runs, the moment they hit their afterburners and speed home, we show the Covvies that the groundpounders are a lot worse than those Navy flyboys could ever be."
A mile away...
A lone little creature wandered through the forest. This creature knew that it was called a Flood. The Flood creature seemed insignificant. It was no more than a little sack of flesh and tentacles, but inside, brewed a dark, sinister, and ancient entity. Though it was shackled due to the Flood drone's tiny brain, it managed to imprint one thought in the Drone's mind.
Vengeance.
The entity did not know why, as it was limited by the small brainpower of the drone, but it knew that it wanted revenge on something. But to do that, it needed a suitable body. The wildlife around the forest provided excellent sustenance, but none where adequate to suit its needs. No, it needed something bigger and better. It remembered its escape just days ago, in the bowels of that structure, and those creatures that released and subsequently destroyed its brethren. It thought back to its escape and remembered one particular creature that it caught a glimpse of.
Yes... that body will do.
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