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Blood Canyon
Posted By: Aleks G.<haloaleks1992@hotmail.com>
Date: 12 April 2007, 2:41 am
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Bullets ripped through the air, propelled by unseen rifles hidden in the bushes. Brutes grabbed their chests in pain, and grunts were thrown from their feet as the heavy rounds rammed their small bodies. The aliens had very little time to react to the assault; they had expected the humans to keep running deeper into the trees and attempt to hide. After several dozen casualties resulting from the barrage, the aliens had finally regained some control over the situation and began returning fire. Two marines were instantly struck down by long glowing metallic shards fired from a Spike Rifle, they didn't have time to scream as the sharp blades cut their throats and impaled their bodies. The marines dropped to a low crouch to avoid the incoming fire, and Sgt. Merritt paused to take the men's Dog tags. Corporal N. Delisle and Private C. Baughman were the unlucky men, and Sgt. Merritt hoped to avoid a similar fate, but that was beyond his control. The Sargeant spun to see that most of his marines, as well as the remaining bridge crew were retreating deeper into the woods, and he jumped up to follow them. A sharp pain struck his back, followed by what felt like thousands more, and he dropped to his knees. The long shards were different from the ones that claimed the lives of the other two men though, they glowed bright pink and seemed warm, he felt blood in his mouth, but before he had a chance to spit it out, the pink shards erupted in a large pink explosion. Shaun was torn apart as the needles erupted and hurled tiny crystal shards through his flesh and bone, nothing could have survived the wrath that they ensued.
The other marines had reached the canyon's edge and were staring over the edge when the needles exploded; they spun to see a fading pink blur, and knew there wasn't much time. Warrant officer Morse had already strung a line down to the bottom of the deep trench, and started to climb down, the young woman, whom the captain had seen earlier, followed suit, and the rest of the bridge crew after her. The captain was the last one down, and just as his feet touched bottom, a Seraph fighter bombed the forest into a burning crater. The covenant thought they were dead, so they had a little free time before the alien horde decided to make sure, they took this time to make their way through the winding canyon, heading north. There was no basis for their choice, just the fact that it sloped downhill toward the north, and it seemed logical to go away from the covenant forces, rather than towards them. A small recon group, consisting of Lieutenant Lesyk, the young woman Corporal Stol, and Lieutenant Frost scouted ahead while the rest of the group of seven men hid in a shallow cave near the stream that had cut the wide canyon. Captain Gingras ran his palm against the reddish rock in the cave; it came off as blood red dust on his hand. He brushed it on his grey naval uniform, and streaked a long dusty "gash" on his leg. Zach made it back first, and he spoke while breathing heavily,
"We… found a warthog… it's rolled over… come on."
Before Private Stol and Lieutenant Frost returned, Zach had already begun running back, with the Captain walking briskly behind him, truth was, he was in a dead run. All of the other men had arrived before the Captain, even though they had started behind him. It was mostly due to the Captain's extreme laziness, were it not for his tactical intelligence, he would have completely failed military training. When he arrived, he saw the warthog lying on its back, with four wheels in the air, there was no blood or any bodies around the upturned vehicle, so it was safe to assume they made it out alive. Zach didn't think so, and his suspicious nature spread to the Captain, and his Second Lieutenant.
"Everyone, be careful… this smells like a trap." Captain Gingras cautioned his men, and he hoped to God he was wrong. The red haired woman, Kate, stood over the Warthog, examining its frame from the underside. When she glanced up Scott was standing across from her, watching her eyes intently. A shadow washed over him and he shouted as an elite slid down a rope towards the warthog, the elite hit the warthog's belly hard, and bounced onto the reddish mud it rested on. It leveled a slender boxy steel weapon at Warrant Officer Trapp's head. The weapon seemed very peculiar as far as covenant weapons went, normally they were sleek, rounded, and blue, or at least vague purple, this weapon was just, wrong. The rifle poured a sickly orange glow from its triangular barrel and the elite grimaced when it looked at the human's face directly. The gun wavered for a second, and then the elite lowered it to the ground. The 9 foot tall alien spoke in his own tongue, which was quickly translated into a synthetic English voice by his real-time translator.
"Put down your weapons humans, I mean no harm to you, unless you wish to fight"
The voice was garbled, but understandable enough for Warrant officer Trapp to aim his M6E at the elites head, and challenge him.
"Yeah right, you're probably just trying to screw with us, so you can shoot us in the back!" Scott racked the slide on his pistol, "But it ain't gonna happen today" The elite glanced at the man, and then looked away. Without warning the elite's arm punched through Scott's uniform and plunged into his chest, he made a gurgling noise as his heart was ripped from him and blood wept from the gaping hole in his body. It wasn't long before Scott's heart stopped beating, and he was still alive to watch it happen before he collapsed to the ground. The other marines trained their weapons on the elite, but Captain Gingras raised his hand and stopped them from firing. He walked toward the elite and turned his back to the menacing creature,
"This thing just offered us peace… if it was a trap, they would have shot us by now." The captain spoke with the knowledge of 10 years of experience with the covenant, and the marines believed him, "I bet there are dozens of elites waiting for the sound of gunfire just behind those rocks, and they'll kill us if we kill him" The captain motioned toward an outcropping of large boulders farther north, and a glint of metal shone from behind the rocks. The elite turned and barked an order in his language. Three black elites and two hunters stepped away from the rocks and advanced on the group. The hunters were absolutely massive aliens in blue armor. Their arm mounted metallic shields glinted in the sun and reflected the eerie green glow of the fuel rod cannons on their other arm.
The spines that ran along their back perked up when they saw the humans; they lowered their bodies into a defensive stance, and slowly trudged forward. The elites were all heavily armed, but again, not with covenant weapons, instead they were similar to the rifle the elite held, but differently sized and shaped. The elite mumbled something in his language, and the others turned to the rocks and waved. A long purple point slid out from behind the rock, it hovered just a few feet off the ground and made a loud whining noise as the pilot accelerated it out from behind the relative cover of the large boulders. The vehicle was about the size of the warthog jeep, but was wider, and more streamlined. Its mounted gun was unmanned, and the nearest elite hopped onto it. The other two elites moved toward the upturned jeep, stepped over Scott's body, and heaved the vehicle onto its wheels, the left front wheel landed on Scott's head, crushing it into a bloody paste.
The elite turned to the humans, and ordered them into the Warthog.
"Now wait just a second," Officer Depenau cut in, "The captain's the boss around here, what he says goes, I'm not takin' orders from no alien creep"
"Your bravery against me will not be forgotten" The elite raised his rifle and fired. Officer Depenau's death was quick and painless, and after the bright light faded, his half slagged pistol clattered to the ground and bonded with the dirt. The smell of Ozone filled the air and heat radiated off of the weapon's barrel as the elite glanced at the spot where the pilot once stood without remorse.
"Stop killing us you bastard!" Captain Gingras shouted, "If you keep this up, you won't have any allies left to fight with." The elite aimed at the captain, then lowered his weapon, the human obviously had a point. The alien spoke again "You will get in the jeep, all of you… we will cover you in the Specter"
"Fine," The captain said, "we'll do it your way"
An elite hopped into the Driver's seat of the hog, and lieutenant Lesyk rode shotgun. The rest of the crew piled in the back, normally a mounted turret would have limited the warthog's capacity, but this gun had been removed for one reason or another. The captain turned to the elite behind the wheel, "floor it." The alien put the pedal to the metal, and rocks crunched under the Warthog's massive tires as it leapt forward. The hog had stiff suspension, so it bounced about wildly as it sped over the rough terrain in the canyon. The Specter Wailed loudly in an attempt to keep up with the quick LRV.
Lieutenant Lesyk turned to the elite and asked, "Where the hell are we going exactly?" The elite turned to him, but kept an eye on the road, "We have found a base, built by the forerunners, in this canyon."
"Huh?" the captain cut in, "a base? Really?"
"Yes" the elite turned its head farther to face the captain, "it should serve us well when the Brutes glass the other areas of the planet." The captain nodded, and the elite returned to navigating through the canyon. The captain took some time to look at his crew, and he noticed that they were uneasy; they had just watched two men die, though, so it was understandable. He looked over at Corporal Stol, her eyes looked distant and glazed, he tapped her shoulder and she snapped back to reality. She stood up in the back of the warthog and looked over the roll-bar.
"Shit, everyone out!" she screamed. The crew bailed out of the hog just before it was struck by a plasma bomb. The hog flipped nose up and bounced on its rear, it then rolled over and exploded, sending fragments of metal flying. Plasma flew from the encampment the elites had discovered earlier, apparently, the Brutes found it moments later. The Brutes, Jackals, Grunts, and Drones had made a pretty decent defense camp for the time they had. Plasma raided the ground, probing any areas around the warthog where something could have survived, it burned the warthog's metal to a matte black, and scored the ground around it. The crew had taken cover behind a turnout in the canyons structure. And aliens slowly moved to their position. The jackals went first, holding their wrist mounted energy shields in front of them, behind this wall of jackals, was a platoon of grunts, and a dozen brutes. With their shields the Jackals were going to be a real problem if they didn't take care of them now. That's when Kate stepped around the turnout's wall and heaved a grenade into their midst.
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