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The Corporal by The Scribe
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The Corporal: Part 1
Date: 16 January 2004, 9:59 PM
It's been forvever! I'm back.
The last time he had seen a Spartan was right as he darted for Foehammer's Pelican drop ship in the flood-infested steamy jungle on Halo. The Chief had suddenly disappeared and was lost from radar. Later, Corporal William Harris learned that the Spartan had gone off with a 343 Guilty Spark or something like that to supposedly "stop Halo".
Later, on Halo, only a few days before its end, the Lance Corporal's leg was severely wounded, earning him a ticket off of Halo. Foehammer evacuated him and a few other KIA and WIA Marines to a small and nearby cruiser, the Helix 8. It had eventually made its way back to Earth where the Corporal was able to heal his leg and get back into the war.
Three months later, the Corporal found himself crouching behind an odd-looking palm tree on the desert/tropical planet of Basalt, named after what most of the planet was made from. A cobalt plasma bolt flew by, hitting a tree three meters in front of him. The plasma splashed onto the tree, frying it in half. It crashed to the ground, leaving small bits of leaves and a hairy substance floating in the air.
The twenty other marines with the Corporal were getting pretty pissed. They had been crouching here almost all day, taking small bursts of plasma. Only two had been killed, and that was when they had gone to take a piss on some tree.
"Jesus Christ," the Corporal said. "We'll be here all day. We'll never get to that plant."
The plant they were going after was one that the UNSC wanted destroyed. They said that it had the power to build replica of the Unyielding Hierophant, which had been some huge Covenant control center that the Chief and some other surviving Spartans had destroyed.
The plant was only a mile away and visible, but it still, and obviously, had some guards tending to its defense. Suddenly, Romulus, the team of Marines' AI aboard the ship orbiting Basalt, spoke over the COM.
"According to my readings, the nub of the plant's security force is located outside the structure only one hundred meters from your position," the AI's apathetic voice said.
"Please, Romulus," Harris said, "tell me something that I don't know at the moment. For starters, we're having trouble getting past this group of Covenant in front of us."
"One moment," Romulus responded. "Corporal Harris, it may take some time, but I believe that I can cause one of the plant's energy turbines to rupture. This should create a very distracting explosion. However, it is nowhere near the plant's main energy source, so your mission will still have to be acc-."
"What ever the hell it takes, Romulus!" Harris barked. "Just get us passed these damned Covenant."
"Yes, Corporal."
The Corporal slouched down even farther towards the moss-covered ground. Romulus was a serious requirement. The AI was specially built for hacking, so there were very few Covenant computers or in very rare cases AIs that could make a countermove on Romulus.
"What's going on, sir?" a private asked.
"Romulus is going to see if he can't hack into the plant's energy turbine's computer system and overpressure one of the valves. That should cause a distracting explosion. During that time our 'friends' over there should turn there heads for a minute or two. When they do, I want a frag grenade and plasma grenade tossed over there. I'll throw the frag. Garfield, you got that plasma?"
"Yes, sir."
"After that, I want Jackson to send a SPNKr over there."
"Aye, sir," Jackson said.
The time seemed to slink by. A small salvo of plasma bolts slammed into the trunks of trees and fried surrounded bushes. The Marines weren't the only ones tired of waiting. Suddenly, a boomed thundered from the plant's direction. It reverberated from the trees and caused the surrounding brush's leaves to shudder.
An Elite called out from the group of Covenant one hundred meters away.
"Goddamn it, NOW!" Harris shouted.
The Corporal shot to his feet and ripped the pin from the grenade. Garfield sprang up and tossed his grenade along with the Corporal's. The two small explosives, landed right in the middle of the guarding team. A grunt just began to cry out when two thunderous explosions rumbled the Marines' chests. A small, scaly blue arm still clutching a plasma rifle bounced from the trunk of a tree near Harris.
"Now, Jackson! Blow 'em to hell!"
Jackson let out a continuous battle cry and stood upward, the SPNKr rocket launcher resting atop his shoulder. The rocket launcher shhhhed loudly as the small missile broke free of its chamber and impacted a surviving Elite right in the center of its chest.
"Open up!" Harris ordered.
The team of Marines fired at where the Covenants' dead bodies, reducing them to purple, bloody pulps.
"Stay low and move slow," Harris said. "I'll take point."
The Marines made their way to where the guard team had been. Blood dripped from the surrounding trees and plants. Small chunks of meat and hollow, charred armor plating hung from tree branches. The upper half of a gold-armored Grunt pulled itself away from the Marines with its left arm. It's right one hung by a few strands of muscle.
"Holy hell," Garfield said, walking over to Grunt. He placed his foot on the Grunt's back and bent down, placing the barrel of his M6D on the back of its head. The Grunt let out what sounded like strained gurgling cry of fear. Garfield fired once and the Grunt's head split apart, its left arm twitching.
"We need to get to that plant," Harris said, looking off into the sky. He suddenly snapped back to attention. "There are still Covenant left in the area, so don't walk easy."
The Corporal and his troops cautiously approached the plant.
"Romulus," the Corporal said into his COM. "How exactly will we know where this main turbine is?"
Some static and then Romulus's voice spoke out, "Once you enter the from the side of the plant you're on now, you should immediately enter a small room with five doors in it. Take the door with the geometric figure of two circles vertically adjacent, with a straight line sticking through them both."
"Gotcha," the Corporal muttered as the team came to a door on the side of the building. The whole building was a blackish purple and was very large. Like many of the Covenant's architecture, small blue lights had been sporadically placed on the structure.
The door slid open. Inside, it was pitch black.
"Light's," Harris said.
The Marines flicked their MAB5s' front lights. The Corporal placed his small circle of light on each door until he found the one with the correct shape.
"This is it," he told the team. He pressed one of the buttons on the holo-panel. The door slid open and the Corporal could see that about a twenty-foot long hallway lead right to another door with the same symbol. The only problem was that the Marines' gun lights fell upon a small group of Covenant strike troops, dressed in their traditional velvet black.
Jackson had barely had time to yell, "Shit!", when two Grunts, wielding fuel-rod guns on their shoulders fired. The first lob hit Jackson, blowing his lower half off. The second slammed into the top of a private Fieldon. Fieldon's upper left side disappeared, along with his head, and he fell into his own crimson puddle.
Harris dived to the ground and grabbed Jackson's SPNKr rocket launcher and fired. The projectile slammed into the small and cramped group of Covenant troops. One of the fuel-rod guns bounced over and landed at the foot of Garfield.
"Hot damn, a souvenir!" Garfield said, picking it up.
"No!" Harris shouted. "The failsafe!"
But it was too late. The weapon exploded. Garfield let out a muffled grunt mixed with a scream. His mangled, limbless torso slammed into the wall and grossly slid down onto the floor, making a vertical stripe of blood on the way.
Harris looked over to Jackson's upper half. The Marine was still alive and began dragging himself toward Harris. He spit up some blood and then grabbed Harris's sleeve.
"Do...you...remember that...Grunt?" he rasped with difficulty.
Harris nodded and stood up. He slid his M6D out of its holster and aimed.
"It was a pleasure," Jackson gurgled and then, miraculously, smiled.
Harris pulled the trigger. After sharply inhaling, the stern Corporal returned to his normal state.
"Romulus!" he barked. "We have five KIA, zero WIA and zero MIA."
"Message received, Corporal," Romulus said.
"Now...we blow this son of a bitch and quit losing men."
Harris and his team entered the large room which contained the turbine. It was a giant glass tube, with sparkling energy spiraling on the inside.
"Wow," a private remarked calmly.
"Hastings, three Lotuses," Harris ordered.
"'Sir," the private said, handing the Corporal the large anti-tank mines.
Harris timed the mines and then said, "We've got five minutes to get within three quarters of a mile from this thing. Let's go!"
The Corporal: Part 2
Date: 17 January 2004, 4:10 AM
I'd suggest reading part 1 b4 reading this one.
Captain Edgar Patton signaled his squad to go prone. The SF Marines hit the sand. Only a few meters away, the ocean's tide licked the shore. The three moons of the planet Turx shone brightly in the night sky. It was a regular night, the climate was warm, and humidity tainted the air.
Patton motioned to the squad's sniper, Private Wells.
"Wells," he whispered, and pointed to the silhouettes of two Elites standing guard about one hundred and fifty yards ahead. Wells nodded and brought his right eye to the scope. The silencer prevented two loud cracks from being heard and instead coughed up two quiet pips!.
The two Elites fell to the ground like thousands of pounds of weight had been placed upon their shoulders. Patton stood up and looked at the twelve SF Marines in his command. The black and 100% tinted eye visors made them look like heartless killing machines. He liked it.
"Do you know why Stalin's armies were able to push the forces of Adolf Hitler from Soviet Russia?" he asked them looking off into the distance. "Because the Germans weren't properly prepared and didn't know anything about the land they were fighting on. The Soviets knew about the coming Big Winter. The Germans were clueless. So, the Soviets used this to their advantage. Most of the Germans ended up freezing to death, the rest were killed in bloody and treacherous Nazi-Soviet battles.
"The Covenant know nothing about this planet, and they know nothing about the annual 'Titanic Storm' that is to start at this location tomorrow."
One of the Marines cocked his head.
"What's the 'Titanic Storm'?" he asked.
The Captain pointed out to the ocean. Off on the horizon, hundreds of lightning bolts pounded the water.
"The 'Titanic Storm' hits this location every year, raising the oceans water levels by 30% for a few days and causing waves sometimes one hundred feet high to pound the shore. That's why there's not a human structure around here for eight miles. But, leave it up to our Covenant friends to build something."
The Captain pointed to a dome-shaped metal building.
"The Covenant built five of these along this beach, each a mile apart. They're elevator shafts leading two hundred feet under the ground. Contained under this beach is a base. Underneath us, an entire Covenant strike force is prepping and getting fired up for an assault on the nearest base, Fort Beachhead. What we need to do is to set a charge, ready to go off in twenty four hours on each of these. The explosions should be big enough to blow up these dome structures, leaving open holes in the ground. By then, the Titanic Storm will have raised the ocean, causing millions of gallons of water to pour down the elevator shafts and into the base, wiping out the strike force."
"Hell yeah..." Wells muttered.
"Let's go," Patton said.
An explosive was easily planted on the first dome, because of Wells's nice marksmanship. The second dome was guarded by an idol Wraith tank and two Elite-mounted Ghosts.
Private Wells stayed behind while Captain Patton, and two other privates, Beltzer and Melish moved up towards the Wraith. When Patton and his two men were close, Wells cracked the closest Elite from his Ghost. His partner immediately took off forward towards the water. Right as the Covenant warrior was about to go into the ocean, he wheeled back around and darted straight for Patton and his two troops. Patton quickly pulled the pin on four frag grenades and rolled them next to the Wraith. The three Marines then dashed around the other side of the dome.
The Ghost flew after the three Marines and was able to squeeze off four bolts of plasma right before they were able to totally round the dome, out of sight. The bolts struck Melish in the back. He bent forward, stomach out, but kept running. Only when the plasma ate a hole through his torso did he begin screaming and fell on his face into the sand. The plasma had burned a hole completely through one side and out the other.
Beltzer stepped forward and quickly let off a burst into the back of Melish's head, to ensure a quick death in case the Marine hadn't died. Captain Patton nodded.
"You did the right thing," he said right before the Ghost flew right around the dome and came face to face with Patton and Beltzer.
"Vaporize the fuck!" the Captain shouted and opened up along with the private.
The front end of the Ghost filled with bullet holes. The Elite on board howled a cry of anger and lurched the vehicle forward. Patton and Beltzer hit the ground as the hovering vehicle passed right over them. Patton busted two bursts into the bottom of the Ghost and it did two flips five feet off the ground before exploding into a cloud of blue flame and organic parts of a very dead Elite warrior.
Private Beltzer stepped over to the dead Melish and ripped off his dog tag as Captain Patton planted the explosive. The team of SF Marines moved on to the third dome where they found no resistance. The fourth dome was guarded by three crimson-armored Elites with two Hunters and a very ape-like creature, much taller than a Hunter.
"What in the name of God is that?" Wells asked, looking at the beast through his scope.
"I don't know," the Captain replied. "I had heard something about a newly discovered Covenant race that are known as the Temple Guards. They're called Brutes, and maybe that's one of them. All I know is is that when we charge them, I want that to be the first thing capped, Wells."
"Yes, sir."
"Alright then! Let's go!"
The team charged the dome, shouting as they went. The three Elites split into different directions as the two Hunters, side by side, charged up their fuel rod guns. The Brute stood, its chest jutted out and looked to the sky. It bellowed a low roar and raised its blade-equipped weapon. Wells sighted the beast's head in and fired. The Brute's head split down the middle and it fell onto the sand, flopping like a fish out of water.
"Fire on the one farthest left!" the Captain shouted. The team of Marines opened fire on the Elite farthest to the left. Its shields quickly disappeared and large spouts purple blood erupted all over its body as the MAB5 rounds sliced through it mercilessly.
The two Hunters and two other Elites opened up simultaneously, releasing a salvo of plasma into the middle of the team of Marines. The Elite's shots splashed across three of the Marines and the Hunters' fuel rod bolts exploded between three troops as well. The upper half of private Beltzer slammed into the back of Captain Patton, knocking him down.
From afar, Wells sighted in the thin slit of orange that was one of the Hunters' face. He fired, and the face produced a large hole. The behemoth fell in a heap of its own blood and brains. Wells then made short work of the two Elites. The last Hunter was blown into fleshy chunks of meat by a well-tossed frag grenade by Captain Patton.
The explosive was placed on the fourth dome shortly after. The fifth dome was surprisingly guarded by a sword-equipped Elite and two Grunts. Wells made sure the three aliens were dead. Captain Patton finally planted the last explosive and called a Pelican for extraction to Fort Beachhead.
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