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Halo: Soldiers at Play (Chapter Two)
Posted By: StevieTopSiders<StevieTopSiders@gmail.com>
Date: 14 April 2009, 11:43 pm
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2300 Hours, February 10, 2535 (Military Calendar) /
Lambda Serpentis System, Jericho VII / City of Palms
"But, but, sir! I donate very generously to the UNSC Veterans' Association. I've made many large contributions, and I even built the local Veterans' Memorial."
And I made a donation to the World Stupidity Fund by trying to convince you to leave your affluent neighborhood and your stupid car. "Sir, I'm sorry. There are too many civilians, and we just won't be to bring along your 1968 Ford Mustang. I apologize and thank you for your generosity to the UNSC, but I say again, 'No!'" The man began to formulate a reply, but Joseph cut him off decisively. "Does that thing still use carbon-based fuels, anyway? I can't believe that you even got it out here to this backwater colony."
"I can assure you that it was quite easy, before you militaristic pigs started infringing upon the little local autonomy we had," the man replied, and then he spat. "I hope some alien bastard kills you long and slow. And don't you dare call this colony backwater! My grandfather…"
"Was probably smart enough to can it when talking with a UNSC Marine," Joseph finished his sentence for him. "Now, get gone!"
He turned to leave, undoubtedly to badger another soldier about his vintage car. It was sitting in the man's garage, which was set apart from the main body of his house. Well, more like mansion. The car itself was very exotic and completely spotless, a sure sign that the man never intended to drive it, even if it did make it far enough to avoid being glassed. It is a nice car, though.
"Also," Joseph shouted after him, "us militaristic pigs are the only thing between you and a nice hide singing yourself."
The man turned one last time and let fly with a string of obscenities. I bet he even would've tipped me if I let him have his car. This war is turning some nice civilians into very pissed off Innie supporters. Let's make sure he gets to the spaceport without getting killed.
Joseph pulled a grenade from his belt, gauged the distance from him to the man's garage, pulled the pin, and let it fly. His aim was true, and the M9 grenade bounced under the car. The man squawked and began to rush toward the garage.
BOOM! The Fragmentation Grenade exploded, gutting the car and ripping one of the roof supports. The structure tottered, and then collapsed in a puff of dust and smoke. The car's owner was thrown back but quickly recovered. He put his tail between his legs and ran to the spaceport as quickly as possible, probably intending to file a complaint.
Joseph had been coaxing civilians into evacuating the planet for four hours, once the two-hour drive from the radar post had been finished. And boy, am I tired! His platoon had started out on the outskirts of the city, where new, cheap developments were rampant, and people were more than happy to leave their shoddy condominiums to a new house, which they would, of course, buy with the UNSC Relocation Bonus they would get. The going got tougher the further into the city they penetrated and the more established the neighborhood was.
Joseph's HUD flashed a message. Since his battalion was a recon force, and therefore on the fringes of special warfare classification, they had had their standard issue ground-pounder helmets upgraded. The new helmet still shone with the drab army olive, but the polarized orange visor completely covered his eyes, as opposed to the small green drop-down screen normal Marines were supplied with, and molded around the bridge of his nose. The piece was modular, and it could be fitted with almost any tactical supplement.
Joseph tapped his data pad, with which he had been checking off civilians as he confirmed that they had left their homes, and the TEAMCOM activated in his earbud, it was First Sergeant Kelsey: "All units, acknowledge," Joseph stowed the pad and responded. "Okay, we've got Covenant artillery moving in on the west of the city. The spaceport is out east, so we should have some time to stop 'em. I want all fireteams to move into the downtown area, we'll be able to hold them there."
The COM cut, and Joseph's HUD sprang up with a map of all nearby personnel. He glanced at the tags, and saw that he was near Corporal Lange and Lance Corporal Dilinkov. Pallas, the "smart" A.I. of the Justinian routed them into a COM network. Joseph asked, "Does anybody have transport?"
Will Dilinkov responded, "Yeah, I got a Gauss Warthog fueled and ready, I had to pay for it myself though! That bloody gas station owner didn't wanna donate some hydrogen to the people saving his life! Not like he's gonna lose it all anyway when our Navy brothers get raped in space."
"Docking tubes?" laughed Jacob Lange. "What the heck, come pick us up."
"Already on it."
Joseph turned in a slow circle, scanning for the Warthog, which, according to his HUD, should have been appearing right about…
A horn blared, and Joseph was suddenly blinded by the powerful headlights of the Light Anti-Armor Vehicle. "Shit, man," said Joseph, blinking, "you could've just picked me up like a normal driver."
Will laughed, "You're not my prom date, and the sarge wants us their ASAP. Now get on the turret." Joseph ran to the back of the 'Hog, stowed his ammo bag, and started to pull himself up. "Hold on!" The LRV shot forward, almost causing the gunner to lose his grip.
They picked up Jacob, who pulled a Rocket Launcher from below the seat and loaded it. The Warthog made its way to the city center, with the sounds of combat just starting to float towards them on the breeze.
A blue explosion lit up the street. "Ah! My eyes!" shouted a UNSC Army private, straightening up and flailing his arms in a doomed attempt to shield his eyes. He was soon cut down by small arms fire. Joseph's helmet had automatically polarized, but his head still hurt. He swung the Gauss Cannon towards the Wraith that had fired the plasma mortar. Joseph pulled the trigger and fired, ducking small plasma bolts, but a bump in the road sent his shot awry, hitting a Brute next to the Wraith. He grimly hoped that he had not seen a body in the road where they had just driven.
Dilinkov spun the vehicle in a quick 180. "Get them on this pass!" he shouted over the roar of combat and gunned the engine.
Joseph gripped the handles of the turret tighter; his palms were sweaty. As the Warthog dashed back through the intersection, Joseph found his target and fired two shots. The first round punched through the tank's forward armor, exposing the ape-like driver beneath. The second rent him in half and sliced into the engine. A whine filled the air, and the Wraith exploded, knocking over the infantry who were protecting it.
Dilinkov stopped the M12, and Jacob quickly motioned to the Army soldiers, "Move up now!" Will turned the 'Hog up the street, hoping to push their advantage. Another Brute stepped out from behind the Wraith, pulling up his Spiker. Too late. He screamed as he saw three tonnes of metal bearing down on him. The car thudded with the impact, and the windshield was spattered with blood. "Great, now I can't even see." Jacob stood up like an acrobat in the moving vehicle and wiped it down with a rag from his pack.
"Don't fall!" jibed Will.
"I ran away to join the circus when I was like, three. This is cake," he responded, laughing fearfully.
Up ahead, they saw the smoking remains of the UNSC's first barricade impeding Covenant progress towards the spaceport.
Pallas joined their COM; "You guys might wanna wait for some backup. Army heavy armor has just been dropped a couple streets back." His male voice, young and accented like that of the ancient Roman hero, piped up excitedly.
"Whatever, we'll take 'em ourselves," grimaced Will.
The driver gunned it, and the vehicle flew threw the gate, already swinging uselessly from its hinges. Another Wraith tank materialized a couple hundred yards in front of them. The infantry contingent assigned to guard it looked up, surprised. They obviously hadn't expected to see the humans for another couple minutes. The tank pilot, however, wasn't taken aback for long. He fired.
"Oh, crap," Joseph couldn't tell which of them had said it, or all three.
The first shot landed well in front of them, but the searing blue heat still melted the Warthog's tires. Joseph frantically began to shoot. The first shot hit the Wraith's shields, but before he could fire again, the tank let loose another volley. Jacob leaned out the side of the speeding 'Hog and let slip a rocket. Combined, the two shots depleted the Wraith's shields and knocked down a few Grunts, but they couldn't stop the tank from firing.
The mortar landed a couple yards in front of the fast-moving Warthog, and all of its momentum was instantly reversed. The LRV was thrown back, the front end lifting off the ground and turning to the left; the car started to spin, a "barrel roll." Joseph could have sworn that time had stopped. Everything happened in excruciating slowness. Dilinkov mouthed a curse word before being turned entirely upside down, and Jacob hung on to the dashboard with a sickly face. They're moving so slowly, shouldn't they be falling?
Just as soon as it stopped, time resumed its normal pace, which was, for them, pretty fast. The 'Hog landed on its side and rolled. It was a miracle that nobody was crushed. Then, it halted suddenly, running into a low concrete barrier, and throwing the three clear of the car onto hot asphalt. Joseph screamed in agony and slipped into unconsciousness.
"Wake up, dammit!"
Joseph looked up bleary eyed, everything was fuzzy, and his vision was riddled with black spots. Everything was spinning. "How am I still alive?" The words were slurred, and he could taste blood in his mouth. The clatter of gunfire rebounded in his head.
"Your vitals have marked you unconscious for only a couple minutes," his vision focused, Sergeant Kelsey. His face was slightly burned, and he had a bandage around his left wrist. "Now, hurry up, you definitely won't be alive if you keep sitting like this."
Joseph steadied himself and got up. Will was walking unsteadily, and Jacob was also being coerced shakily to his feet. Joseph hurled and felt better. He stood up, adrenaline already kicking in, along with his combat reflexes. The Wraith was on fire, and he soon discovered why. Army M808B Scorpions were taking the field.
"When did they get there?" asked Jacob incredulously. "Those 90mm. cannons would have come in real handy a little bit ago."
Kelsey laughed and answered, "They interpreted that suicidal dash you guys made as bravery. They were swarming through the road block seconds after you guys."
Joseph whistled in amazement.
"Okay, tell me this," this time, Will spoke up, "where were you all this time that we were being brave?"
The First Sergeant referenced his face and hand; "I was taking out some AA Wraiths over yonder," he waved south, "so that we could send the Covenant a little present."
A TACMAP sprung into Joseph's HUD. Friendly units were approaching quickly from the southeast. He minimized the map and looked up. A flight of Shortsword bombers flew into view. They began to carpet bomb the suburbs around City of Palms where the Covenant had taken up residence.
"And I suppose you did that all by yourself?" Joseph asked, and the three non-coms laughed.
Kelsey's look darkened; "We lost a lotta good men over there, even if they were Army. We got up in the skyscrapers and started raining down SPNKrs on two Anti-Air Wraiths, killed a bugger, but before we could destroy the second one, he looked up and started pumping fuel rod blasts into us. The Marine next to me, who shot the killing rocket, died right after he pulled the trigger. My floor collapsed and fell down, that's how I got this, scraping on some metal."
They all stood in sober quiet. Jacob broke the silence, "Well, now we feel like..." He trailed off.
"It's okay, soldier, that's what those grunts signed up for. To give their lives for their race."
Joseph looked up suddenly. "Pelican inbound!" he shouted.
Kelsey growled, "About time."
They filed into the troop bay, where their platoon, or at least what was left of it, was waiting. Kelsey entered the cockpit of the DC77H-TCI Pelican, and it began to lift off. Will, Jacob, and Joseph stood in the rear of the bay; there were at least enough Marines to fill the seats. Joseph took the rear-facing turret, as the dropship rose away from the burning city.
The loudspeaker in the back of the Pelican activated; "Okay, Marines. We did an outstanding job today, but we'll leave the front line up to the Army for a little bit while we get some rest." The soldiers mocked a groan. "We're pulling back to defend the spaceport and make sorties to protect the civilians still flowing in. But, we will get a couple hours of sleep for now." They cheered, though it was so lackluster that Joseph thought some had already fallen asleep. Five hours? Then I'll be fighting for my life again.
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