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Odium - Prologue
Date: 3 March 2006, 5:07 am
"Shit."
The muttered word was completely drowned out by another burst of plasma fire burning itself into the carbon-scored and partially melted masonry above her head. Adellyn quickly crushed her body further into the shattered doorframe where she was taking cover. Dust from the much-tortured wall above her drifted down and settled in her jet black hair, turning it dark grey as she reached down to the ammunition pouch strapped to her leg and retrieved a fresh clip. Deftly ejecting the spent clip, she slipped the new one into place and thumbed the slide closed, the cold metallic SNICK! Ratcheting another round into the chamber. Adellyn leaned against the wall of the doorway, bringing her rifle up to her shoulder and leaning out into the hall with practiced bravado. Plasma screamed down the hallway towards her. Sighting on the bright flashes muzzle flashes, Adellyn started to kill the Covenant manning the crew-served weapons, the rounds from her BR55 battle rifle pinging off the Elites shields, each burst alternately lowering shields and its companions delivering the killing blow. Even the ricochets from those bullets that were turned by the Elite's shields found homes in the bodies of the innumerable Grunts and Jackals running around. Her clip expended, Adellyn ducked back into her make-shift refuge and sighed.
The situation was untenable. The Covenant forces had cut down the rest of her squad within moments of their sudden attack, Jawolski falling to turret fire from the Phantom that had been disgorging troops onto the street outside. Michaels had been the next to go, a victim of the rather unpleasant tendency of plasma grenades to stick to organic matter. He had not so much died as merely ceased to exist, the intense blue flames incinerating much of his body to nothing and melting the rest to the concrete floor. Then Carlisle, Donovan and Shingleton, one after the other. Now it was just her and a hallway full of Covenant.
She had the Covenant troops pinned where they were, unable to advance because of her suppressive fire, but each moment served to bring more and more Covenant reinforcements. With no grenades to try and even the odds, the situation was rapidly spiraling out of control. Eventually, some Zealot or Field Master would get smart and order a Hunter pair in to flush her out where she could be utterly destroyed by a withering volley of plasma fire. Adellyn didn't plan on being there when that happened. It was the ammunition situation that forced her hand, more than anything else: she was down to her last clip, excluding her service pistol.
"RAGNAROK Command, Chalk Two, request permission to abandon position and rejoin platoon. Covenant have breached Elysium Research facility. The rest of my squad is dead. Please advise." Letting go of the radio headset she had been unconsciously crushing into the side of her skull, Adellyn snuck a quick look into the hallway. A black armored Spec Ops Elite was busy organizing the Jackals into a shield wall, preparing to march on her position. The Elite looked up and saw her. For a moment, neither one made a move, then the Elite stretched its mandibles in a grotesque parody of a smile. Fuck.
* * * * *
"Sir, status report from Chalk Two indicates the squad is nearly surrounded and in danger of being overrun. There's only one marine left, sir, and she requests permission to abandon her post and rejoin her platoon at grid 029. What are your orders, sir?" The rudy-faced corporal asked, the armpits of the olive-drab UNSC Marine uniform sweat-stained from the past two-hours of having run messages around the massive Ragnarok Base operations center.
General Eiling pushed his glasses up and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Rockefeller IV was lost, that had been a foregone conclusion even before the Marines had started their holding action against the waves of Covenant landing on the planet. The UNSC still had tenuous control of Rockefeller space, and while that held true, the standing orders were to evacuate as many civilians as possible from the surface. In the meantime, Eiling had sent all three divisions of Marines under his command to try and hold off what reconnaissance suggested was close to 100 divisions of Covenant troops. The mere fact that his Marines had lasted for the past two hours against those odds was incredible; the fact that even one person from Chalk Two, which had been written off as a total combat loss an hour ago when Covenant forces rolled into the city of Ellensburgh, was still alive counted as a miracle. Turning to the corporal, Eiling's slate-grey eyes flashed, "Tell her to abandon her position and hump it to RV point Romeo. We're evacuating all combat personnel from the city. Get on the line and spread the word to whoever is left. We are abandoning Rockefeller IV." The corporal saluted smartly, fresh beads of sweat glistening on his brow, and ran back to the banks of communications equipment, relaying the General's order.
* * * * *
"…-cuating the planet. Repeat, make for RV Romeo, marine, we are evacuating Rockefeller IV." Adellyn jerked her combat knife from the corpse of the no longer cloaked Elite, neon blue blood running down the blood groove and seated it back into its scabbard in the small of her back. She stood in her doorway, the concrete walls crumbling from the brutal onslaught of Covenant fire pouring down the hallway from the advancing Jackal shield-wall and its Elite masters. Slinging her freshly loaded rifle and jerking on the strap to tighten it to her back, Adellyn sprinted for the dimly lit hall across her.
Plasma fire arced by her, miraculously all of it going wide and splashing into the wall behind her. The safety of the hall was close, so close. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a streak of bright blue. The plasma grenade landed six feet in front of her, sitting there idly, melting into the dust-covered, concrete-strew floor and then detonated. The searing fluorescent blue heat crashed over her, melting her armor and burning armor her uniform. Adellyn was dimly aware of the wall rushing up to meet her, and then there was black.
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