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Running Riot. by Simon James
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Running Riot- Part 1
Date: 17 July 2003, 4:52 PM
Part 1
Private Johnston of the UNSC Marine Corps stood behind a baracade blocking Hw101. The barricade was made up of empty ammo crates and other odd pieces of junk. He held an assult rifle at the ready to defend the position. The Covenant had twice already attacked them and wern't the type to give up easily. He had once seen a grunt with only one arm and no weapon attack a fellow marine, despite the fact the marine was twice his size.
Down the line were two other marines taking shelter behind a burnt out Warthog. One lent causily on the carcass of the 'hog smoking a cigar, while the other knelt over a sniper rifle, looking down the scope. "See anythin' yet, Joe?" Asked the first. "Not yet Sarge." Joe replyed. "Only bodies and..." He paused, then shouted, "Get ready! Here they come!"
Indeed they did. A mass a grunts charged towards the marine lines, yelling and barking in their odd language. Some went down onto all fours, completing the image of dogs. Behind them came Elites, the feild commanders, who sprinted like champion runners and soon overtook the grunts. For them it was a race to see who could kill the most humans.
Johnston opened fire on the first Covie bastard to enter his sights. It was an unfortunate Elite who recieved a long burst of hot lead. It took down his shields and rendered him helpless. A second burst finished him off. Johnston emptied the rest of his first mag into the general direction of the enemy. No mater what, he would hit something.
Joe, down the line, was much more precise. His first shot took out a gold Elite. The heavy round took off half the Elite's head and the shields on the Elite behind. Sarge took out that one next. "Want to move yet Joe?" Asked Sarge above the din of small arms fire. "Nope. They havn't seen us yet." He replyed
Joe managed to finish off the rest of his mag before concentrated fire was focused on him. Each shot ment that the Covenant was less one or even two high ranking officiers. When a grunt got too close to their position, Sarge took it out with his assult rifle. Then they ran, Joe changing mags as he went, and Sarge relighting his cigar.
By now, live Warthogs had been brought up to the front. Although they provided devestating fire support, most marines steered clear of them. They were known death traps because the Covies tended to notice them fairly soon and concentrated to destroy the 'hog. And wheen the thing went up, all it's ammo went up with it. The drivers kept moving as much as possible, but sometimes were caught down. This was the main killer of 'hogs and their brave crew.
This is what happened to a 'hog as Joe and Sarge passed it. The entire crew was killed by a flurry of plasma. By a maricle, the 'hog didn't explode. For some reason, Joe marked it's position in his head. In the meantime, Sarge looked for a perfect fireing hole for Joe. He spotted one near some other marines. The one they settled next to was IDed as Pvt. Johnston on their HUDs.
Johnston hardly noticed their arrival. He was too engrosed in fireing at the enemy. He went for yet another mag. His hand dug into the pouch but came up empty. He looked down and rooted through the pouch again. It was empty. "I'm out!" He shouted. A marine he hadn't noticed before threw one to him. Before he loaded, Johnston took a look at the man. He was remarkable lightly armored. Johnston wondered why before he saw the sniper nearby. This guy must be a spotter for him.
Johnston reloaded his rifle and looked up again. He was surprised to see how close the Covenant were to the barricade. He almost let off his etire mag before he remembered it was his last. Instead he fired in controled busrts, aiming for grunts. He didn't have the ammo to take out any more Elites.
Joe did though. He took out four with four rounds. As he reloaded, Sarge commented, "Not bad. But we may need to go soon. Them bastards are gettin close." Joe looked up over his scope and was astonashed as well. Sarge had a way of understateing things. The enemy was barely 100 feet away. "Right, we're gone soon." He agreed. He returned to his scope, sighting on high rankers far in the rear. This time he only got three, but all were gold Elites.
Johnston had finished his mag again and drew his M6D sidearm. It was a special one sent from home. It had an extended 23 round mag and a longer barrel. It had a range only slightly less then that of his rifle. He fired it at the first Elite he saw. This time it only took a few hits to take it down. Around him, some marines were falling back, or down. It depended if they were hit or not. Johnston decided to follow so that he didn't become the latter of the two. Live to fight another day and all
Joe and Sarge had the same mentality. They moved back as well. "Come on, Joe." Urged Sarge. Joe was having trouble carring his heavy rifle. Sarge decided they need some transport. He wouldn'd get any from the 'hog drivers. They would want to get away as fast as posible. "We need a Warthog!" He told Joe. Joe snaped his fingers. "I know just where to get one!" He said. So with Joe guiding, they ran for the abandoned 'hog Joe had spotted earlier.
When they arrived it was seen that no one else had been as smart as them. The 'hog lay undesturbed where it had been earlier. Sarge jumped into the driver's seat and Joe swung up onto the rear platform and took control of the LAAG there. They drove off with Joe firing back at the enemy, who now were almost at the lines. Most marines had pulled back and were also on the run.
One of these marines was Johnston. He heard the whine of a 'hog and looked around. He saw the sniper from earlier along with his spotter driving away. He jumped into their path. They stopped in time and Johnston hopped into the passenger seat. They sped away with Sarge berating Johnston for his stupidity.
End of part 1.
This was my first story in a while. What do you think?
Running Riot-Part 2
Date: 17 July 2003, 8:42 PM
Part 2
"How could you be so stupid?"Yelled Sarge. "You could have killed us and yourself!" He was directing his wrath at one Private Johnston, who sat next to him in the Warthog. Joe, on the gun at the back was also glaring daggers at Johnston. "And now we're lost because of it." Added Joe. This was correct. They had had to use violant evasive action to evade their Covenant pursuers. This had lead to their subsiquant plight.
The ancient road system of highways that connected most places on the contenant had not seen regular use since the invaison of Earth 20 years ago. The roads fell apart in neglect and with battle damage. They 'hog had to dodge continualy to avoid craters, burnt out hulks of human and Covenant vehicles alike, and concrete wreakage.
"Well, you must be good for something." Said Sarge. "Start looking for a map, food and ammo. Those will be first priority." Johnston did as he was told. The man next to him had an air of authority. He rummaged in the cargo bin under his seat. In it was some MREs, ammo, and first aid kits. But no map. Johnston popped the glove compartment. In there was a small datapad. He took it out eagerly.
But when he turned it on, Johnston found it had a password on it. Joe had been watching and now said,"Here, let me see." Johnston handed over the pad. Joe had swung around the gun and sat on the bulkhead behind Sarge. Johnston went back to looking. Then Joe handed the pad back silently and straped ito the gun again.Johnston looked at the pad in amazment. The password was cracked and he had full access to all files.
Sarge laughed when he saw the look on Johnston's face. "Our boy Joe has some hidden talents." "Yeah."Argeeed Johnston, while he looked through all the files aas fast as possible."Damn!" Shouted Johnston. "No map." Sarge replied in kind, as did Joe.
They refrained from further elaboration when they saw a Covenant dropship aprroach. Joe traversed the gun to fire on it but Sarge stopped him. Firing would only give them away. Instead, he drove into an old water pipe by the side of the road. Then he shut down the 'hog. Joe trained the gun onto the entrance of the tunnel. Johnston hopped out, as did Sarge. They also trained their weapons on the tunnel entrance.
Then Joe had a thought. He jumped down from the gun and pulled his sniper rifle out of the storeage bin. Johnston jumped into the gunner position while Joe sat and reconfigured his rifle. He added a sound and flash suppressor. He then moved part way down the tunnel and knelt down.
Sarge knew the drill and went back to his driver's position. Joe fired his first shot. There was barly any sound from the weapon, and Johnston didn't even know what was hit. But smething was, judging from the wild plasma fire outside. Joe fired two more rounds in quick succesion. They resulted in yet more confused fire. Not one blast entered the tunnel. Joe fired off his final round and ran back to the passenger seat.
Now the Covies knew where they were. Elites ran towards the tunnels entrance, with plasma rifles at the ready. Before they could fire, Johnston opened up with the chain gun. Two Elites went down and a third was injured. The rest took cover. Some fired from a prone position but the shots were wild and missed by a long shot. Sarge gunned the engine and they took off down the tunnel, leaving the Elites far behind.
The 'hog's headlights lite up the way ahead. Johnston watched carefully front and behind but saw nothing. Then they heard a familuar sounds. A sort a whining humm.
The three Ghosts rounded the corner behind them. The Elites behind the controls gunned the engines. They were not the normal Elites who often crashed into each other in their eagerness to kill. These were experianced pilots. They fired short blasts towards the 'hog. Most missed, but some hit the rear bumper. Johnston fired long sustained bursts at them. The first burst stiched holes across the front of the lead Ghost. It dropped down with smoke coming out of the bottom. It hit the ground and disintigrated.
The other Ghosts drifted apart to present a smaller target. They were successful in this. Most of Johnston's shot went wide. The Ghost's pilots were more successful at shooting as well. Johnston had to duck to avoid the rounds. They approached a turn in the tunnel. Johnston took yet another shot. This time it hit the Elite on the left. He slumped over in his seat and the Ghost took a turn towards it's partner. The second pilot tried to dodge and rammed the wall at the corner.The other was only seconds behind. Johnston poured fire into the whole time.
Just around this corner was the exit of the tunnel. They burst into the light and back onto the highway. Unfortunatly, a Covenant vehicular patrol was right behind them. It consisted of four Ghosts and two of the new Shadows. The Shadow was equil to a Warthog. It had room for two passengers, plus the driver. It also had a plasma turret in the back.
The Ghosts abruptly turned around for some reason. But the Shadows accelerated. They were slightly faster thn a Warthog, so they couldn't catch up quickly. The Elites in their passenger seats fired on the 'hog and Johnston did his best to fire back. In each Shadow , a grunt crawled into the plama turret and took aim. One was prevented from firing when an over-excited Elite stood up to get a better shot. The other fired though. It's shots melted the ground behind the 'hog, dangerously close to it's wheels. Sarge veered away and Johnston fired at the offending grunt. It screamed and fell out of the gun turret.
Joe hadn't done much thus far except for a burst when he got the chance. Now as one of the Shadows drew up close on his side, he readied a grenade. Johnston was concentrating on the other Shadow and couldn't get this one. Joe saw the plasma turret slowly turn in his direction and the guns of the Elite passengers do the same. He threw the grenade and it landed in the passenger compartment. This caused some panic with the Elites. Before they could get to it, they grenade went off. It destroyed the Shadow.
Johnston was having almost no trouble with the other Shadow. He fired sustained bursts into the driver's compartment. The driver was killed instantly. The Shadow nearly instantly crashed into the road in a firey crash.
But what about the Ghosts that had run off earlier, wondered all three ocupants of the 'hog. They had returned to the nearest city to report the 'hog. In response, the Covenant leader there sent three drop ships, each with three Ghosts attached. Soon the Ghosts had caught up to the 'hog and engaged it.
End of Part 2
Running Riot- Part 3
Date: 24 July 2003, 2:24 PM
Part 3
Johnston was having a hard time fending off nine Ghosts. He just could'nt get a good shot with Sarge swerving the Warthog to evade plasma and wreakage on the highway. They were nearing an overpass that had fallen a decade ago. It blocked most of the road. They would need to slow down to get by, which would give the nine....eight pursuers a chance to hit to 'hog hard. The one Ghost that was hit fell to the ground and scraped the ground. It bounced twice and came to a halt.
Joe in the passenger's seat popped a hatch at his feet. Out of the compartment he pulled a SPNKR rocket launcher. He loaded both barrels and took aim. The target rectile in his HUD went red and Joe immedatly fired. The rocket streaked towards it's target. The Elite piloting it was either blind, distracted or very stupid. He didn't try to get out of the way until it was too late. The rocket hit and blew the enemy to bits.
Joe launched a second rocket at the next Ghost in his sights. But it's pilot was more alert then his comrade. He swerved and the slow-moving rocket missed. Joe went to reload but there were no more rockets in the compartment. It was obviously a last chance holdout. He threw away the launcher in disgust.
Sarge in the driver's seat also knew they were in for it. Unless he could find a way around the wreakage in front of him, they were doomed. He almost resigned to his fate until he saw a sign. It said 'Exit- 100m'. That was the answer. When the exit came up Sarge took it. The 'hog took the turn on two wheels.
The Ghosts were still hot on their tail, although one missed the exit. While turning around it hit an old burnt out hover car and exploded.The other Ghosts came up the long curving ramp after the 'hog. Because of the curve, they could not get off a clear shot.
At the top of the ramp was an intersection. On one side the bridge and the other side, where the highway should be, was a crater that Sarge that seemed to have overlooked. The only way was over the gap in the bridge. Sarge pulled the wheel that way fast and acclerated hard. If they hit the slight upward curve on the bridge with enough speed, they migh be able to clear it.
Even though the 'hog increased it's speed, the Ghosts managed to catch up fast. They were hot on the 'hog's tail and thought that they had their pray cornered. The kill was iminant.
The 'hog was fast approaching the bridge. 100 metres to go, 75 metres, 50 metres, 25 metres. Then they were in the air. Johnston continued to fire his gun, screaming obscenities to the pilots of the enemy craft. Joe held tightly to the side of the 'hog and Sarge held the pedel to the floor.
The 'hog's wheels spun in midair. They were almost to the other side. Behind them, only two of the remaining Ghosts attempted the same stunt. They also flew through the air, but with less success. Both crashed into the ground simataiously.
As the Ghosts hit the ground, the 'hog landed on the other side of the bridge. It's suspension almost bottomed out and they left big burn out marks where they landed. But they had succeded in evading the Ghosts. They were in the clear.
Two days later, they were still being pursued by the Covenant, but from a longer distance luckly. The only contacts were the occasional Grunt patrol and a Banshee yesterday. They had evaded it without much trouble and were sure it hadn't seen them.
They had stopped at a roadside rest place for an hour to eat some of the MREs Johnston had found. The roadside here was littered with more vehicular carcasses then usual. Some had been burned but a small percentage were more or less intact.
Sarge told the the others;"I'm goin' to look around for a while. How about you find some shelter, we made need to stay the night." The other agreed and Sarge went off exploring.
"So whats his name?" Johnston asked Joe. "Well, I'm not quite sure." Replied Joe. "I just call him Sarge, because hes been promoted and busted down so many times." Johnson nodded his understanding. The pair of them went back to eating the god-awful MREs. Joe had finished a tin of 'baked beans' and turned it over to look at the bottom. "The contensts of this can are not ment for human consumption." He said out loud. Johnston, who hadn't finsihed yet, held his up so he could get a look at the bottom. There was no writing on it, but Joe was laughing at him now.
"Ha ha. Thats funny, man." Said Johnston. He threw away the rest of the 'beans'. "I'm going to look for shelter, like Sarge said we should." He walked away towards some of the less damaged vehicles. They would make good individual sleeping compartments. Johnston approached the first. Through the rust on the side he read 'Ford.' He opened the door and looked inside. The vehicle retained much of it's original upholstry. Johmston leaned farther inside to test the spring. He knocked something on the passenger side dashboard and the glove compartment popped open. Out spilled papers and very old trash. Some of the papers were so old that they disintigrated when they hit the ground.
One paper in particular caught Johnston's attention. It was wraped in clear plastic and was in reasonably good condition. He pushed aside papers that covered it and saw familuar lines on it. He picked it up and crawled out of the car again. Inthe light he saw it was a map. A very old map. It still had New Toronto on it. That city had been destroyed 15 years ago. But it was still a map.
He looked over to where Joe was sitting and saw that Sarge had joined him. He ran over to them and presented the map. Sarge was exstatic "Good work, boy! Now we only need to find out where we are." Joe went over to a nearby roadsign. He can back. "It seems we're near a place called Sunderland. Off Hw 203." Sarge looked at the map in the fading light. He found the red line denoting Hw 203. He ran his finger along it and found Sunderland."We're here."He said, pointing."And the nearest city is....here." He said, pointing to a place labeled as Port Perry. "As far as I know, it is still in human hands."
So it was planed that the next day they would return to the road and take the short ride down to Port Perry. It would take only about 3 hours to reach it. So they three settled down in their own vehicles, with their map safley in the Warthog's glove box.
Author's note: I've been told that I should get this published. Do you think its good enough?
End of Part 3
Running Riot-Part 4
Date: 4 August 2003, 7:10 PM
Part 4
The next day at first light the three intrepid marines set out for Port Perry. They had their map as well as weapons, ammo, grenades and about two day's worth of M.R.Es. This time Joe took the gunner position and Sarge took the passenger seat. Pvt.Johnston drove. They returned to the highway to work out a route that would avoid any known Covenant encampments. It was a long way. They had been on the road for two hours when they encountered some more marines, headed the opposite way. The other marines were in a column of Warthogs. They all had equipment trailers towed behind them. They also had troop carrier 'hogs and 'hogs mounting rocket launchers.
Johnston stopped the 'hog to talk to the leader of the other group. "Whats going on here sir?" He asked. The major in the other 'hog answered, "We're from the Port Perry garrison. A major Covie push is on the way and we got orders to pull back. Right now we're on the way to the Grand Canyon." Johnston explained what they were doing and asked permission to join the group. It was readily granted, so Johnston drove back and took up a position. They moved out again.
As they approached the road-side stop they had found the map at, the column was ordered to stop. Covenant had been sighted ahead. This was confermed when a enemy dropship came in and landed in front of them. The major gave orders to scatter and fight on their own. The order was followed because the drivers had no choice. The first group of 'hogs ran towards the enemy, running them over and blowing fist-sized holes in those they missed.
The first 'hog was destroyed by a Covenant tank that had been linguring on the side lines. The tank in turn was destroyed by a rocket-firing 'hog. Then things began to go bad. The Covies began to organize themselves into rough squares, as if there were at the battle of Waterloo almost 300 years ago. But even now the squares where somewhat successful. When the 'hogs went by, a veritable cloud of plasma grenades came from each square and stuck to one 'hog. The crew bailed out, but it was too late for the gunner. He stayed on the gun until the 'hog exploded. As a final act of revenge the 'hog's wreak went right through a Covie square, killing or wounding most of the enemy.
Seeing that the Covenant had resorted to such old tatics, the major decided to use slightly more modern techniques. But only by about fifty years. He ordered the 'hogs to circle to Covie lines. They did so, firing into them the entire time. It was extremly successful. They made difficult targets and took out many of the enemy. Then when more dropships appeared, the order came to get out of there. Again they did so. The dropships landed and their doors opened. Out of each side came two Hunters. Before the first two could level their weapons however, they were taken out by the speeding 'hogs. The second two were left to fire wild shot at the Marine's tails.
While moving over the road towards the Grand Canyon, Sarge took stock of causilities. They had lost three 'hogs and only four Marines. That was surprisingly good, considering what they had been up against. Sarge himself had taken out at least five of the enemy. Then factor in that their were nearly a dozen men in passenger seats, plus more in gunner turrets. The Marines had won a stunning victory.
The road to the border was clear. Within five hours the convoy was at the former Niagra Falls. When the Covenant first invaded, the area was partially glassed. All the water in the river was instantly evaporated. The bridges that spanned the river had long since fallen down. To get across now, people and vehicles had to take a dangerous path down the valley and across. If an enemy dropship or patrol were to spot them then the Covenant would be all over.
The former Port Perry contingent moved slowly down the path. All guns swept the top of the valley and the sky above. All they saw were a few birds and all they heard was the sound of their own vehicles. It was a tense moment. Suddenly a roar filled the air. A flight of Banshees went over the valley. At first it seemed they hadn't seen the convoy, but the Banshees wheeled around and dived on the 'hogs. All the guns opened up, hurling a wall of lead into the sky. It took down two of the attackers before they managed to fire a shot. Then all the other Banshees did at the same time. A rain of plasma fell. Three of the 'hogs took direct hits and were knocked out. All their crews died. The Banshees had to pull up now to prevent crashing. They were most vunerable now and another three went down.
The Marines were confident that they had the enemy on the run. But they could'nt let them get away to warn others. Out of nowhere it seemed, the Marines produced rocket launchers. Almost all the passengers had one and they fired in a volley. Unfortunatly, most missed. The ones that did hit destroyed their targets in the air. Only debris fell.
One of the Banshees was hit in it's engine pod. It limped downwards, trailing smoke. It settled only about five feet above the ground, where it was easy prey for all the assualt rifles in the convoy. They fired and one rounf got through to the pilot. He fell out and was killed on impact. The Marines cheered. A few 'hogs stopped and their passengers hopped out. They approached the Banshee carefully. They found it safe. They examined it and found the only damage it had taken was the rocket in it's engine pod. They decided to load it onto one of the empty trailers. Perhaps it could be repaired later.
While searching the wreakage for more technology to capture, another squad came across a Banshee with an intact engine pod. They reported it to the commander. He told them to put it in the trailer with the captured Banshee. They did so and set off again.
End of part 4
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