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Flames of Perdition
Posted By: Colossus<xhalcyon713x@yahoo.com>
Date: 22 April 2006, 2:00 am
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Flames of Perdition
Day 22
The Marines had been in the same stretch of forest for over two hours now.
Hidden in ambush, they waited to strike. Their clothes different shades of white, they blended in perfectly with the harsh snowy terrain to which they had become accustomed to. They hid under snow banks, in fox holes, in ditches formed from artillery, under fallen foliage, in trees, under the wreaks of vehicles. They were in textbook ambush position.
The only missing factor was the Covenant recon team that was supposed to be coming through the clearing.
Marine Captain Zadeka (known jokingly to his soldiers as The Shadow.) was laying flat on his stomach underneath a large pile of broken pine tree branches. His sniper-rifle, built and camouflaged for the arctic climate was aimed at the beginning of the clearing where the foothills of the Masonic mountains sloped down and leveled out between two enormous and ancient pine trees.
The Marines had been encamped for over two weeks on this section of Perdition. Perdition HQ had ordered a full scale retreat from Sector A-19 whenever Covenant forces landed a massive invasion force nearby. Captain Zadeka of Firebase Charlie had been ordered to beat a hasty retreat back to Sector B-3, when an advance Covenant assault strike force overran the base, destroying all their vehicles. The Captain had ordered his men into the woods to an unknown abandoned outpost nearby.
The Covenant had raised Firebase Charlie to the ground.
The Captain waited for the Covenant to appear through the clearing. He would take the first shot with his sniper rifle. Then, he would signal the other snipers with a green flag. Then his special infantry with a red flag. If there were vehicles, which there most assuredly were, he'd toss out a blue flag, and the three hidden rocket jockeys would open up. If the stuff hit the fan, he'd toss out a black flag, and they'd double time it back as stealthily as possible.
The first Covenant through the clearing was a black armored Elite veteran. The alien sniffed the air, and clenched his carbine around his chest. Then continued forward.
Zadeka drew a beat on the Elite. One. Two. One. Two. Zadeka counted the Elite's steps, synchronous with Zadeka's heart beat. He placed the targeter right of the Elite's head. One. Two. One. Two. Zadeka pulled the trigger, and a muffled bang echoed. The Elite dropped dead in its tracks, blood spilling through the gaping wound in his forehead.
A column of Elite's, headed by a veteran in maroon armor, entered the clearing next. They spotted the dead Elite, and advanced cautiously forward, hands tightening on their weapons.
Zadeka tossed out the green flag.
Sniper bullets rained down all around the Elites, pinning them flat like insects. A pair of bullets took an Elite straight through the midsection, and it stumbled backwards into another one. That Elite collided with the veteran. The veteran took a bullet straight through the helmet, and it went down. More bullets, more bodies. In several seconds, the entire squad was eliminated.
There was a distant rumbling sound, which confirmed Zadeka's fear of enemy vehicles. More Covenant poured down the sloping gap into the clearing. Perfect.
Zadeka tossed the red flag, and finely placed bullets cut into the Covenant troops like a scalpel. Elites fell under perfectly placed combined fire. Grunts well killed by the scores with headshots. Jackals were thrown into discord by sniper fire, and soon the infantry platoon of Covenant was in a huddled, confused mass. They fired blindly into the forest, hitting each other or hitting trees. Either way, it didn't matter.
"Hit em', Marines! Hit them, you Flames of Perdition!" Sergeant Jonas "Tank" Gaunt barked.
A fragmentation grenade landed in the midst of the Covenant infantry. Some tried to dodge, but were caught up in a tangle of flailing limbs and shots. The rest of the squad died in the confusion.
The rumbling of vehicles was much louder. A Covenant Wraith entered through the gap, with a pair of Ghosts right behind it. Zadeka tossed out the blue flag.
Sniper rounds tore through the Ghosts' gas tanks, and they exploded, killing their pilots. The Wraith fired a mortar, and it smashed into a towering tree. There were yells of surprise and pain from that area, and the tree fell backwards into the forest. A pair of rockets smashed into the Wraith, and it exploded outwards in a fire-blossom of shrapnel.
Hours later, at night time, Captain Zadeka walked through the carnage of that days battle. The Covenant had not been back to collect their dead or their vehicles, and the bodies of the fallen had already been half covered with snow. He held a triplet of dog tags clenched tight in his hands. Materializing, as if from nowhere, came Sergeant Gaunt. His camo-cloak blew eerily in the still night. He lifted the pair of heat-vision goggles from his face.
"No Covenant hiding out here, sir. They really bugged out, after today. Not even the regular camos they have out patrolling."
"That's good to hear, sergeant."
"How many did we lose today, sir?" The sergeant asked. Sergeant Gaunt was a grizzled veteran of over a dozen campaigns. He hated to see his men die, but knew the sacrifice of their lives was for the greater good of the entirety of the human race.
"Three. Wallace, Hershel, and Moskal," Zadeka said. He held out his hand, and dropped the dog tags into the sergeant's hand.
"That's a tough loss sir. I mean, we killed atleast fifty of the bastards, not to mention a tank and two of their skirmishers, but Moskal was our best sniper. It's a tough blow."
"I wouldn't want to trade one of my men for a thousand of the Covenant if I could choose. But this is war, Sarge. Moskal knew what he was doing when he signed up for today's outing. He knew his duty, and he served it well.
"Ayuh. Judging by the angle of some of these fallen bodies, it looks like he was responsible for nearly ten of these Elite casualties," the sergeant added, grimly. Although the lower downs called him "Tank", Sergeant Jonas Gaunt was anything but stupid. In fact, the captain found the man's intellect almost frightening. Gaunt's physical prowess was surpassed only by his mental prowess, and Gaunt was a big man. Zadeka knew that lurking behind Jonas Gaunt's powerful muscles, was an even more powerful, almost infinitely powerful, mind.
"Let's go back to base, Sarge."
"Right behind you, sir," the sergeant added and followed the Captain back to base.
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