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Memories of a Dying Soldier: Chapter Two
Posted By: Spartan Elessar<noel_wolverine@yahoo.com>
Date: 20 March 2006, 3:31 pm
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Chapter Two:
Hey, I am invisible
January 5, 2535
UNSC armory
Planet Jericho VII
Logan Kelso, Jen Fell, Howard Ryan and Ken Shun entered the military structure. The entrance was big enough for two men to walk abreast. The insides were well lit by fluorescence lamps. The armory had a long hallway, intermitted by several rooms. The structure itself was one block, in and out. A staircase was inserted on their right.
The four marines, the Charlie team, swept passed the hallway, searching all the rooms. They found several bodies of grunts and jackals laid around, no human.
"This is Charlie team, come in Alpha and Omega, over," Jen whispered into his radio, but the line was dead. He shared a tensed look with Logan, who replied back with the same.
"According to my analysis, this structure has three floors and a basement. We need to split up. Howard and Ken, you guys take the basement. Me and Logan will take the Top floors," said Jen. Howard and Ken nodded their heads and descended down the staircase, when the other two ascended it.
With the Assault rifle on ready, Logan and Jen climbed the long and broad stairs. The structure itself was unusually silent; they could hear their own breathing. Jen once again tried his radio, but it was useless.
The second floor had the exact same design, just like the first. Both searched the floor thoroughly when their radio opened. Voices and sounds entered it randomly.
"…basement…come in Charlie…hot…sarge down…" the line went numb. Jen and Logan hurried down the stairs to the basement.
The underground was huge. The blast door of the basement was so thick and broad, it silenced all the noise of firefight. The ceiling was twenty five feet high with huge lamps. The room was filled with cabinets and tables. On the entrance, a group of marines stood to their ground and fought the Covenant forces, which stood on the other side of the basement and attacked.
Logan and Jen joined the attack. The noise of the fire fight filled the entire basement, giving back a deafening echo. The marines crouched and stood behind a steel crate and attacked. Two many lay injured behind the old crate.
Logan crouched beside Sergeant Justin and examined him. The sergeant has taken plasma hits on his right thigh and stomach. His bleeding was temporarily stopped by biofoams. He was pale and colorless. He was clinging to his life by a thread. He opened his mouth to form words, but none came.
Logan bends over closely and listens to his weak words.
"They are…covering the door…go through it…Facility…tunnels…attack," words sputtered out of his mouth with blood. Logan couldn't get the deep meaning, but he knew that they have to enter through the other basement door which was located on the other end and currently guarded by Covenant.
He delivered the message to Jen, he nodded back.
"Who is in charge in here now?" asked Jen over his rifle.
"You tell me," came the reply.
"Alright then, take the wounded above Omega team. Alpha and Charlie are going in," replied Jen.
Two acknowledgement signs came from Alpha and Omega.
"Good, Alpha lets give cover to the Omega and their wounded," shouted Jen
Both the team got into a straight line and covered the front entrance, as the marines carried their wounded through the blast door and climbed up the staircase.
Once everyone was out, other than Charlie and Alpha, the team spread out and attacked from different positions. Their Defensive attack was upgraded into suppressive attack.
The jackals shielded themselves and their commodores with their shields. The Elites stood behind those shields and shot at the other side of the room precisely.
The grunts ran around and hid themselves behind tables and chairs as the bullets passed over their tiny heads.
The grunts were small, a size of a dog, they wore a methane filled suit, in order to replicate their frozen home world. Some carried Plasma pistol and others carried needlers.
The jackals were relatively taller than grunts. They were skinny and their face matched perfectly their names. They carried a round, green Shield that gave them an excellent cover. These guys carried Plasma pistols.
Elites were their leaders, so called Holy-warriors. They were seven feet tall and strong. Their bodies were blue and muscular in a very odd way. They wore strong red, blue and silver armors. Their heads were extended from their shoulders, like a camel. They had four jaws, filled with sharp teethes. They were well trained with their weapons, some carried Plasma guns and others Pistols.
The marines shot back in turns, so that if his/her partner has to reload they would do so without any intermission.
Bullets and Plasmas criss-crossed the basement striking anything that lay on their path.
The bullets punctured holes on the walls, shields and on grunt's heads, whereas the Plasmas hit the tables, crates and the marine's helmet.
"Five Elites, six jackals and God-only-knows number of grunts," shouted Jen over his fire power. "We need a strategy."
Logan took a grenade and tossed it towards the jackals. The grenade hit the creature's shield and bounced back and blew harmlessly.
"Definitively," replied Logan
"Does anyone have a rocket launcher?" shouted Logan to his fellow marine
"If we had one, this fight would have over a long time ago," replied back a marine and Logan nodded in agreement.
Elites' plasma grenades flew and hit a crate or a box, clearly missing its target by a hair and detonated with a shock. These shocks often miss the nearby soldier, but sometimes it made a marine air-borne.
"Throw the grenades in unison marines. On my mark," shouted Jen
Every one took a grenade and pulled its safety pin off. "MARK," shouted Jen. Hail of grenades showered over the Covenants. Some rebounded from the jackal's shields; however, others fell into the mist of the group.
The detonation threw the Elites off the ground, burning their fronts and killed the jackals from behind.
Grunts panicked and exited from their hiding places. Jen ordered his men to fire and they did. After few rounds, the walls were sprayed with blue, whitish glue blood.
Logan threw the empty magazine from his rifle and fitted a new one. The marines stood behind their covers for few minutes, just to make sure that their targets were neutralized. When none moved they moved to the back door.
This door was small and was covered with titanium blast armor. Jen took out his personnel data pad and scanned the basement's model map on it.
"According to my map, there is a small room on the other side of this door. I have no idea why these guys were protecting it. There is no way out of there, except for a small subway," said Jen thoughtfully.
"How big is the subway?" asked Logan
"Big enough for one of these Elites to walk straight," replied Jen
Logan thought for a second and said, "I think they are transporting something from here to the other end of the subway, or the other way around," announced Logan, lines passed over his forehead as he ran over his own words.
Jen looked at his pad and the basement. "I don't see the point. What will they take from here, weapons? As for as I know, these aliens doesn't touch our weapons, even if their life is in jeopardy," said Jen
"But we have to check this anyway, it was an order from sarge," said one of the marines. His face was expressionless, his face betrayed irritation, and he didn't like to be here, not on this planet. He had a bad feeling about it.
"Of course," replied Jen back.
A bolt of green plasma hit on Howard's knee from behind. He yelled in pain and fell down losing his balance.
Logan turned around and saw a blue grunt standing behind a fallen chair with a green plasma pistol in his hand. He rushed to the creature and hit its head with the butt of his weapon. The head crushed in and blue blood sprayed on the ground.
"Medic," shouted Jen, and a marine stepped forward. He took a moment to examine the wound. The plasma has burned through the marine's thigh armor and tore his flesh, melting some of his bones with it. He took off the burned part and treated it.
"Take him back to the Omega, and you go with him soldier," Jen ordered and the medic nodded in agreement.
"Ok let's find a way to open this door," said Jen turning towards it. A marine stepped forward and used all his tricks on it. Nothing worked, the door stayed intact.
"The covenant has shut this thing down tightly sir," reported the marine.
"Then lets use our 'Mines'," suggested one of the marines
Jen thought for a second - the sound can easily tear their ear drums apart if it detonated inside this basement, worse it can collapse the structure. Jen shook his head.
"Let's find some other way to break it," said Jen
"Why don't we follow the channel from above," said Logan. Everyone took a moment to think and agreed. Jen was the last one to accept it.
"Ok, lets go topside on the double marines," he shouted and the rest obeyed.
They followed the channel from Jen's computer pad. It took them away from the forest and into the mountains.
"Point three kilometers to the objective," whispered Jen, as he and his five men crew walked through the foot of a giant mountain. The path was rough and solid. Rocks and sands were all around the place. The sun started to pass over their heads, casting a shadow on their path ahead.
"Hold," called Jen as they reached a opening on the mountain's wall. "The opening of the subway is right inside that cave. Let's check it out."
They switched on their lights, which was on the nose of their weapons, and entered the black cave. It was dark and broad. It could have been easily missed from air, but it was visible like a big doorway on foot. Six lights penetrated through dusts and lighted up the rock walls. The cave abruptly ended within few feet.
"I don't see anything in here," said Logan silently. The silence that filled this place was unnerving. It was quite, darn it, too quite.
The six marines searched the cave completely, keeping some pace away from the walls and staying in the middle.
Logan searched the end of the cave. It was smooth and reflected his light back to him. The cave itself was forty feet high and one hundred feet in length.
Suddenly, his eyes caught a movement, a blurry shadow. When he focused his eyes, it was gone. Illusion – thought Logan, but he gripped his rifle tighter.
"AHHHH!," a scream echoed through out the cave. Logan spun around and saw a marine hung on mid air, with a blue light – a sword coming out of his ribs.
The marine yelled and fell to the ground dead. The sword stood on the mid-air, as if it was hanging on an invisible rope. Marines stood there for a split second motionlessly, then they opened up. The bullets sprayed on the cave, as rocks splinted away form the stones. But some bullets hit something on the midway, other than rocks. When the invisible object took a hit, a silver shield glowed, revealing seven foot tall elite.
Marines emptied their whole magazine on the elite, even though it tried to run outside.
When Logan's rifle read "00" the elite fell to the ground dead. A marine, who stood near Jen, emptied his remaining bullets on the fallen body, spraying black blood all around the dusty floor.
"Check the fallen soldier," ordered Jen and Logan obeyed.
He went near the immobile body and checked the pulse - nothing, the body was cold. His chest was cut open and the insides were burned to ashes. It was too terrible to watch. He looked at Jen and shook his head.
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