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The New Conflict
Posted By: Duriel_666<blackelite_118@yahoo.com>
Date: 20 March 2006, 5:40 am
Read/Post Comments
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1410 Hours, October 10, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
New Mombassa, East Africa, Earth
The hollow roar of the D77-TC Pelican's engines reverberated through the troop compartment as it followed the other dropship over the empty streets of the city towards the LZ. Sergeant Sid Kelso sat on the closest seat to the drop ramp of the ship, doing a final check on all of his gear, as did the other Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, more popularly known as Helljumpers. He took out the magazine of his BR55 to make sure it was full. He then slid the mag back into the rifle, drew the bolt back, and let it go with a metallic snap, a sound he loved. Sid looked through the scope, then blew some dust off of it. Satisfied, he set his rifle aside and checked his sidearm, an M7 Submachine gun. The SMG was supposed to be a smaller replacement for the MA5B assault rifle, but what it gained in size it lost in accuracy. Kelso didn't think it made a good replacement, and he wished the assault rifle was still a common weapon in UNSC forces.
Finished with his SMG, he checked his grenades and his ammo supply.
"Five minutes to the LZ," the pilot called back to the Helljumpers. Kelso donned his helmet and activated his HUD. The Helljumper's helmets were much like the ones the Spartans wore with their armor, minus a few details. It covered the face with a strong reflective visor on which the user could bring up various tactical data. He quickly reviewed the mission on his HUD. Basically, the two squads would drop in half a mile from the gravity lift of the huge Covenant carrier hovering above the city, make their way to the lift and into the ship, and find and capture the Prophet of Regret. Sounded simple enough.
"One minute to dirt. Prepare to…" The pilot's voice trailed off. Kelso got up to look out the cockpit window. He wished he hadn't.
A Covenant Scarab stepped up onto the highway, crushing an abandoned truck under its spider-like foot. Its main weapon opened like the mandibles of an insect and began charging.
The pilot radioed the other Pelican frantically. "Bravo 1, pull up! Pull up, damn it!" But it was too late. The Scarab fired, sending a thick, steady burst of energy towards the two drop ships. The aqua colored plasma grazed the top of Bravo 1, shredding away the armor. The flaming Pelican careened down towards a building and crashed through the roof of it. Bravo 1 was out of Kelso's sight. Its main weapon drained for the moment, the Scarab then fired on his craft with its other weapon, which spat out explosive, arm sized, needle-like shards. One of the giant needles shattered the cockpit window and pierced the pilot's chest. He let out a weak scream before the shard burst into pieces, spattering the cockpit with blood. A piece of the shrapnel jammed into the copilot's neck, and he gargled on his own blood as he tried to set the damaged Pelican down with one hand clutching the wound.
"Hang on!" Kelso yelled to his team. The copilot aimed for a sandy beach. His heart slowed, then stopped and his body leaned on the controls. The ship nosed into the sand and skidded to a violent stop. Some Covenant Grunts nearby scattered.
The ten ODSTs were thrown around a bit, but most survived the crash. One man's faced had smashed into the bulkhead rather hard; he wasn't going anywhere. Kelso rounded up the rest of them. "Everyone," he pointed to the flat faced corpse, "except that guy, gather your weapons and get out of this wreck. Stay alert."
Near the crash, a Covenant Elite saw the fleeing Grunts running towards him. As the last one approached him, the 8-foot warrior snatched the coward up by its neck and barked an order in his alien tongue. Disgusted with the Grunt's cowardice, he threw him down, and the creature ran away. The Elite switched on his active camouflage. The air distorted where he had stood and he headed towards the humans, who were unaware of his presence.
The Helljumpers moved cautiously back to the streets. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Kelso saw the air shimmer to his right. He swung his rifle towards the motion, but before he could sight on it, an energy sword exploded into view and swung at one of the Helljumpers. The soldier brought his battle rifle to bear, but the glowing blade slashed the gun in half, knocking him back. The camouflaged Elite grabbed the ODST by his neck and was about to cut him in half, when Kelso fired a burst at the shimmer. Purple blood sprayed from the air and onto the captive marine's face. He dropped to the ground as the limp body of the Elite, which had finally come into view, fell into a heap, dead from the head shot.
Kelso helped the ODST up. "You okay, Marine?"
"Yes, sir," he replied shakily.
"All right, grab the other rifle from our faceless buddy in the drop ship and we'll get going." The Marine hustled to the wreck and returned with his new weapon.
Just then, a female voice came in on Kelso's radio. "This is 1st squad, we've crash landed but are okay. We are proceeding toward the objective, over."
"Roger that, Cortana. Second squad is headed there now," Kelso replied. He turned to his men. "Let's move out."
The Helljumpers made their way back onto the street and were heading to their original objective, the grav lift. Kelso swung his BR left and right, up and down, scanning the streets and windows for any unusual movements. "Stick close to the walls, keep alert, yell if you see anything," Kelso ordered. As the humans approached an intersection, he heard a sound ahead. Kelso held up his fist and the column stopped. He leveled his rifle.
A single Grunt ambled around the corner, dragging its feet. The squat little creature was staring at the ground, so it didn't see the Marines pressed against the wall. Kelso slowly reached behind his back for the combat knife that he carried. The Grunt still didn't notice them, and he shuffled closer. Kelso waited until the alien was 15 feet away, and he unsheathed the knife and threw it at the Grunt all in one swift motion. The creature heard the noise of the knife being pulled out, but it couldn't react. The last thing the Grunt saw was the blade entering his neck. The alien fell to the ground gargling. Kelso motioned for his men to follow once again. Just as he knelt to take his knife out of the alien's throat, he heard the unmistakable sound of a Covenant Ghost around the corner. The hover bike flew into the intersection and opened fire on the Helljumpers. One man couldn't move fast enough and was caught in the chest by the barrage of plasma fire.
"Find cover!" Kelso yelled as he rolled under the stream of plasma fire and ran for a doorway. Another soldier, his close friend Corporal Adrian Vicarzo, ran in next to him.
"You still got your launcher, Vic?" Sid asked.
"Yes, sir," Adrian said with anticipation in his voice. Vicarzo shouldered the M19 SSM rocket launcher, known as the "Jackhammer", and aimed at the Ghost. "Come on you purple bastard," Vic said under his breath. "Hold still a second so I can blow you to Hell." He got a lock on the vehicle and pulled the trigger. The launcher jumped and a rocket sped forward. The Ghost tried strafing to avoid it, but the 102 mm rocket tracked it and slammed into the vehicle's fuel tank. The pilot was engulfed in a blue flash and the wreckage slammed into a building.
"Everyone alright? Report in," Kelso called out over the team frequency. One by one, seven blue indicator lights winked on his visor. "Okay, let's get going." The Helljumpers regrouped and continued. They made their way down a few streets towards the objective with little resistance. All they encountered were a few Grunts and a pair of Jackals in an alleyway, who were easily taken care of with a grenade.
"We're close," Kelso said. "It's just up the street and around the corner." They got to the corner and stopped. Kelso took out an optical cable and plugged one end into his helmet. He snaked the cable around the corner of the building and switched it on. A screen on his visor showed a huge courtyard in front of what seemed to be the City Library. Right in the middle of it was the gravity lift, a tall, purple, pillar of light leading up to the massive alien carrier. Surrounding the area were Covenant troops, masses of them. Kelso estimated at least 60 or 70 of them. Most of them were Grunts and those damn Jackals. Kelso hated the scrawny vulture-like creatures with their little shields. There were plenty of Elites, definitely more than Kelso wanted there to be. Finally he counted five pairs of Hunters. The lumbering beasts were going to be a problem. Kelso came up with a plan and started giving orders.
He pointed at the two men with the sniper rifles. "You two, get into this building on two different floors. Don't open fire until I tell you. Aim for the orange spot on the Hunters' backs if you can, but put most of your concentration on the Elites."
"Yes, sir!" they replied in unison and entered the building.
"There are a few Ghosts out there so Foley, you use your Jackhammer to take them out. You three--" he pointed to three others. "--go with him and keep him covered."
"Sir, yes sir," they answered.
"The rest of you are with me. Vic, you are to use your rockets on the Hunters. The three of us will cover you," Kelso finished. He really wished they had a Scorpion tank right about now. He'd even settle for a Warthog. "Alright," Kelso spoke into the radio. "Are my snipers in place?"
"Roger," they said.
"Fire at will."
Seconds passed, then a shot rang out, quickly followed by a second one. Kelso saw two Hunters drop dead. A loud murmur erupted from the crowd as 70 heads searched for the origin of the shots. Another pair of shots echoed through the courtyard and a gold armored Elite clutched its throat and fell. Kelso felt the time was right. "Now!" he yelled. The two fire teams rushed from the corner and split up. A Ghost right around the corner was blown to pieces before it could even turn around. Rockets found there marks and sniper shots left trails in the air as chaos erupted. Kelso fired on Grunt after Grunt, dropping many with a three round burst to their heads. He caught a couple Jackals with their backs turned and splattered their brains on the inside of their own shields. Without thinking, rage built up inside of him.
He turned to the private behind him to give him an order, but before he could say it, a purple beam ventilated the ODST's skull, spattering blood on the man next to him. Kelso cursed under his breath. How could he have forgotten about enemy snipers? He radioed the sharpshooters in the building. "Enemy snipers in the area! Find them and kill them!" Kelso knelt behind a short wall and used the vision enhancement on his visor to look for one of the Jackal snipers. He found one, and it was aiming right at him. Suddenly, the Jackal's head exploded in a purple splash of blood and the limp body fell off the rooftop. He had never felt more thankful.
Then, to his horror, a Wraith entered the courtyard. The mortar tank, hovering only a couple feet off the ground, rumbled towards the other fire team, running over a Grunt that had the poor judgment to stand in its way. Kelso got on his radio. "To any UNSC pilots in the area, this is 2nd squad, we need immediate air support, over!"
He only heard static, then a gruff voice broke through. "This is Sergeant Johnson, we read you and are inbound, over." The Wraith lobbed a blue ball of energy into the sky. The fireball arced towards the four men. One of them looked up and saw the approaching death and screamed a warning to the others. The fire team bolted from their cover, but two of them didn't make it. The plasma bomb exploded on top of them, and when the dust cleared, nothing was seen of the Helljumpers. The remaining men ran towards Kelso's position and he waved them frantically to him, but the tank's auto plasma cannons cut them down. That had pushed Kelso to the limit.
He pulled out his SMG, picked up his fallen comrade's SMG, and ran towards a group of Grunts screaming with insane anger. He fired both weapons, and the hail of bullets ripped into the little methane-breathing bastards. Their light blue blood sprayed into the air and their barks and yelps of pain pleased Kelso to no end. When the ammo was depleted, one alien remained, and he threw one of the guns at its head. He reloaded as he ran and tackled the Grunt. Kelso ripped off the creature's breathing mask, jammed the SMG in the Grunt's mouth, and pulled the trigger. The alien convulsed as the bullets sprayed blood and brain out the back of the Grunt's skull and onto the pavement. Kelso emptied the 60 round clip and stood over the twitching corpse.
He looked towards the building that his snipers were in. The human snipers continued their relentless onslaught on the confused Covenant, and the Wraith had noticed. It launched a ball of burning energy at the sniper in the higher floor. Before he could retreat, the side of the building exploded and sent chunks of rock and steel flying out. Several floors of the structure collapsed, crushing the sniper below him. Kelso could faintly hear his scream.
Kelso got on the radio again. His voice trembled with anger and fear. "This is 2nd squad to Sergeant Johnson, where the…" He stopped in mid-sentence. The gravity lift shimmered and disappeared into the ship. The carrier slowly ascended and moved away. He stared at it in disbelief. "Johnson, never mind the air support, we need immediate pick up. The damn ship is leaving, over." Kelso felt deep sorrow for his fallen comrades' useless deaths. The sorrow was then consumed with hate for the Covenant, a hate that had been born from the death of his wife and two boys in Cote d' Azur.
"Roger that, we're almost there," replied Johnson.
Just then, the Wraith exploded in a blue ball if fire. Kelso looked up in time to see a Pelican fire another salvo of rockets. A cluster of Elites and Jackals were engulfed in flame as the drop ship passed over the three Helljumpers that remained. It turned around and came in low, firing the 70 mm cannon mounted under the nose. It came to a hover 20 feet away and Sgt. Johnson was leaning out the back waving them to him. Kelso, Vic, and the private all ran double time to the Pelican.
"Welcome aboard. This everyone?"
"Yes, now let's get out of this shit hole," Kelso grunted.
A Slipspace rupture generated on the Covenant ship's bow as it prepared to make a jump… inside the city. The Pelican docked with its home ship, In Amber Clad. The small human ship got as close as it could to the giant carrier so it could make the jump and follow the enemy vessel to wherever it planned on going. Kelso sighed. He had a feeling that the next few days were going to be a living hell.
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